


Going Home

by i_am_the_adult



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Awesome May Parker (Spider-Man), Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Gen, Precious Peter Parker, Protective May Parker (Spider-Man), Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-27
Updated: 2020-10-12
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:27:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 45,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23875441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/i_am_the_adult/pseuds/i_am_the_adult
Summary: He had fucked up. There was no other way to put it. He had fucked up.He brought a fifteen year old kid into a war he had no business being involved in for his own personal gain. He had dumped that same kid off with only Happy for supervision. Happy was a good head of security, a good babysitter he was not. He had given the kid a supersuit that protected him and allowed him to -somewhat- safely do his superhero thing but hadn’t monitored him until the situation became dire. Then things had gotten out of hand and the kid had taken off to be the hero in only a pair of ill-fitted pyjamas that had no safety features what so ever because he had decided it was a smart move to take away the only thing keeping the kid safe.
Relationships: Happy Hogan/May Parker (Spider-Man), James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark, May Parker (Spider-Man) & Pepper Potts, May Parker (Spider-Man) & Peter Parker & Tony Stark, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter Parker & James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Peter Parker & Pepper Potts & Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 87
Kudos: 349





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi Everybody!
> 
> So a bit about me, this is my first time posting in this fandom however not my first fic by any means (I have about twenty other fics for a different fandom) this was such a fun fic to write and I'm seriously considering a sequel depending on how this part goes over. 
> 
> I know some people are hesitant about WIPs (I myself am one of them) however let me assure you that this fic is COMPLETE. I will do my best to post regularly (Most likely Monday, Wednesday, Friday) however if something comes up that I can't I will post an announcement on my Tumblr where I will also post updates about other fics and such. 
> 
> I do not have a beta so I own all of my mistakes however if anyone is interested in betaing please let me know! I love comments and I love chatting with people in the fandom so please feel free to hit me up over on Tumblr, I am still relatively new so not a lot of friends yet. 
> 
> I hope you guys enjoy reading this first chapter!
> 
> Aly

He had fucked up. There was no other way to put it. He had fucked up.

He brought a fifteen year old kid into a war he had no business being involved in for his own personal gain. He had dumped that same kid off with only Happy for supervision. Happy was a good head of security, a good babysitter he was not. He had given the kid a supersuit that protected him and allowed him to -somewhat- safely do his superhero thing but hadn’t monitored him until the situation became dire. Then things had gotten out of hand and the kid had taken off to be the hero in only a pair of ill-fitted pyjamas that had no safety features what so ever because he had decided it was a smart move to take away the only thing keeping the kid safe.

He had fucked up. He had become the one thing he had always promised himself he wouldn’t. He had become Howard.

He slams his hand against his work bench and runs his other hand through his hair with an exhausted sigh. No wonder the kid had turned him down. He was proud of the kid, he knew that he had made the right -the mature- choice, but there was a part of him that was hurt. He glances over his shoulder at the hissing sound of the lab door and tries to look slightly less exhausted as his fiancée enters the room.

Her heels click on the lab floor as she crosses over to him and wraps her arms around his neck from behind. He brings one hand up and covers her hands with it, feeling the diamonds in her engagement ring digging into the palm of his hand.

“You doing okay?” She asks gently.

He nods his head and gives her hand a gentle squeeze.

“Guess we can turn the kids room into something else.” He states, “Want a sewing room?”

“You’re hilarious.” She retorts, her voice deadpan, “Don’t do anything with the room.” She adds in a much softer voice, “Leave it for him.”

“He turned me down.” He reminds her, “He doesn’t want to be an Avenger.”

“That doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to spend time with you.” She replies, “I talked to Happy after he got back today… He told me how much that kid looks up to you.”

“God only knows why-“

“Let me finish.” She cuts him off, “You don’t talk when I’m talking.” He offers her a half grin,“Anyway, I talked to Happy and he told me how much the kid looks up to you, he also told me that you gave him back the suit.”

“He’ll keep doing his spidey thing with or without the suit, he’s proven that.” Tony says when she pauses long enough for him to speak, “I’d rather he be safe.”

“He’d be safer if he had you in his corner.” She reminds gently.

He gives a self depreciating laugh, “Somehow I doubt that.”

“I don’t.” She replies simply.

“He got hurt because of me Pep, I took away that stupid suit and he got hurt.”

“You made a mistake.”

“He could’ve died.” He says in exasperation.

“But he didn’t.” She counters, “Yes it could have ended a lot worse than it did but you made a mistake and you’re learning from it.”

“I don’t want to let him down again.” He admits quietly.

There are things he will only admit to Pepper and that is near the top of his list.

“Then don’t.” She replies as if it’s the easiest thing in the world, “Like you said he’s going to keep doing his spider thing regardless, so be there for him. He doesn’t need to be an Avenger, I think he made the right choice turning you down. He’s fifteen years old. He doesn’t need to be involved in all of this.” She gestures vaguely with one hand. “But I think he could use you in his life, so don’t let him down, be there for him.”

“Don’t want to screw him up.”

Pepper laughs in his ear and leans heavier against his back, “From what I know about him he seems too tough to let little old you screw him up.” She presses a kiss to his cheek and leans back slightly, “You’re sitting in here feeling guilty for letting him down and leaving him to his own devises while planning on leaving him to his own devices again. You started this, you need to follow through.”

He realizes that she’s right and can’t help the small smirk that appears on his face. He feels a small weight lift off of his shoulders as his decision is made and another weight settle as he realizes the task in front of him.

“Have I told today how much I need you, Ms. Potts?”

“You may have said something along those lines.” She replies, and he can almost hear her smiling. “Now, I’m going up to bed, you can either stay here and mope or you can come upstairs and celebrate our engagement with me.” She pushes off of him and starts to saunter towards the door, “I’ll be in our room, Mr.Stark.”

He bolts up from the stool so fast he’s silently amazed that the it doesn’t go flying over.

**** 

He has Happy drive him into the city. He loves the open roads in California or even Upstate New York but he has no real desire to fight city traffic and he has a feeling that flying the Ironman suit into Queens and to the kids apartment will draw unnecessary attention and probably won’t win him any points with Aunt Hottie.

He stands outside their apartment door, a baseball cap that probably does little to hide his identity pulled low over his head, and has a moment of hesitation. He raises his hand to knock but lets it fall to his side with a sigh. His anxieties from the night before were returning full force and he was suddenly very aware of every single reason he’d make a terrible mentor to this kid.

He raises his hand again and gives a firm knock. He started this and he needs to follow through. Pepper’s words are the only thing keeping him rooted to the floor as he waits for someone to answer the door.

He hears a chain slide and offers his signature smirk when the door opens a crack to reveal the kids face.

“Uh… Hey Mr. Stark.” He greets uncertainly.

“You gonna open the door, Kid?”

“Now might not be the best time.”

“Who’s at the door, Pete?”

Tony raises an eyebrow at the kid when he shoots him a warning look before opening the door up wider.

“It’s Mr. Stark, May.” The kid calls back.

He steps through the door but stops in his tracks when he sees Aunt Hottie standing in the living room, a deadly look on her face.

“Oh good.” She says her glare hardening, “I have a bone to pick with you, Peter go to your room.”

“May-“

The kid barely gets the word out before May turns her glare on him, he swallows heavily and shoots Tony a look that screams _‘good luck’_ before disappearing into his room. Tony has never been so jealous of anyone in his life as he watches the kid disappear.

“You took my kid to Germany, to fight a fight he had no business being involved in without my permission, you encourage his vigilante justice and leave him all by himself _and then_ you take away the one thing that is keeping him safe.”

He stands and listens to May yell for close to an hour. Listens as she outlines his irresponsibility, his mistakes, his flaws, reminds him of everything bad the press has ever said about him and then finishes by reminding him of every time he’s taken a misstep with her nephew. He waits until she finishes her rant and then gives her a minute to catch her breath before speaking.

“I made a lot of mistakes.” He admits, “I’m big on accountability and as I’ve told your nephew if something happens to him that’s on me.”

“Yeah, it is.” May agrees vehemently.

“And that’s why I want to do everything I possibly can to make sure he stays safe out there.” Tony replies, “I built him a suit that has every safety feature I could think of and it has an AI that will contact me immediately if he’s hurt or in serious danger, I can review all of the footage of his patrols and monitor what’s going on.”

It was an incredibly simplified version of what the multi-million dollar suit could do but he knew May wouldn’t understand if he went into great detail.

“I don’t care if you can see a video _when_ something happens.” May counters, “I don’t want my nephew out there risking his life.”

Tony runs his hand over his face with a sigh. “Neither do I.” He admits, “He’s too young to be dragged into all of this but he’s good at what he does and with a bit of training I think he can be great, maybe one of the best.”

He sees May turning over his words in her head but he can tell that even though he may have gotten his point across she still doesn’t condone it.

“I still don’t want my nephew out there, I don’t care how good he is.” Her face softens slightly and he sees the concern she’s been hiding under her anger. “He is all I have left Mr. Stark, there are a lot of other people who can take care of the little guy, it doesn’t need to be him.”

Tony can’t argue with that. Sure he had been the one to take him to Germany, a mistake on his part and he realized that now. The kid was fifteen, Tony knew that he should be stressing about exams and finding a girlfriend, not being a vigilante superhero.

“He can’t be an Avenger.”

Okay so he’d offered that too.

“I offered him a position on the team as a way to keep an eye one him.” Tony explains, “He’s going to keep doing this regardless of what anyone says.”

He hears a creak and sees Peter hesitating behind May.

“He’s right, May.” Peter offers quietly, “I can’t just stop… There are people who need me.”

“And there are people like Mr. Stark and the Avengers who can deal with it.” May counters.

“They handle the big stuff.” Peter replies, “I stay close to the ground, look out for the little guy.”

May tucks her hair behind her ear and studies her nephew, “Why is this so important to you?”

Peter glances over May’s shoulder at Tony and he gives the boy a small nod of reassurance.

“Uncle Ben used to say that if you have the power to do good but you don’t then when the bad things happen they’re your fault.” He shuffles his feet and gives May a pleading look. “I need to do this, May.”

The mention of her late husband seems to deflate something in May and Tony sees her shoulders slump.

“ _I_ need you to be safe.”

“And we’re going to do everything we possibly can to make that happen.” Tony says firmly, “That’s why I’m here actually.”

He sees the surprise pass over Peter’s face and can see the disbelief etched across May’s.

“I would like Peter to join us at the Avengers compound to train and work on his suit.” Tony says.

“The compound is upstate.” Peter reminds him.

“Thanks for that excellent point on geography, Kid.” Tony replies sarcastically, “I can have Happy, my driver, pick him up and drop him off, if he wants to spend the night he has a bedroom at the compound. I have a state of the art lab set up where he can work on his suit and two gyms where he can train and hone his skills to be safer on the streets.”

“I’m not letting my kid go upstate to spend weekends at a potentially dangerous compound that I haven’t seen with people I barely know.”

“So come see it.” Tony replies simply, “I’ll have someone contact you and set up a visit so you can see everything before Under-“ He catches himself quickly, “Peter can come visit.”

May crosses her arms over her chest and shifts as she looks at him. She seems to consider it for a moment before nodding slowly.

“Let’s go now.”

He hadn’t been expecting that and he opens his mouth to protest but May holds up her hand to stop him.

“I don’t want to see it when you’ve had time to fix it up and make it kid friendly.”

He wants to argue, wants to protest and remind her that he has a busy schedule. He’s Tony Stark for god-sake and he likes to do things on his own terms but there’s a part of him, a part that sounds suspiciously like Virginia ‘Pepper’ Potts that tells him he needs to do this on her terms if he wants the kid in his life.

“I’m not a kid.” Peter pipes up indignantly.

Tony waves a hand at him, “The adults are talking.” He gestures towards Peter’s bedroom, “go get your backpack, it looks like we’re going on a field trip.”

“I have homework.”

“No you don’t.” Tony dismisses easily, “You have to study for your Calculus midterm and you can do that in the car.”

“How did you-“

“I listen to the messages you leave Happy, now get your backpack and get in the car.” He shoos him off with a mild glare, “It’s a long drive and I’m on a tight schedule.”

So he has to maintain a bit of his pride and ego by sliding that in there. He can see by the look on her face that May is surprised he’s giving in so easily and that gives him an iota of satisfaction.

He taps his foot impatiently while he waits for the kid to grab his backpack. By the time he hears a loud bang and a startled yelp from down the hallway May has joined him by the front door, her purse over her shoulder and a jacket in her hands.

“Let’s move it, Underoos!” Tony calls impatiently.

Peter practically falls out of his bedroom and stumbles down the hall with his backpack thrown over his shoulder and Tony can’t help but shake his head at the teen who can so easily swing from building to building but apparently can’t manage the simple task of walking down a hallway.

“Okay I’m ready, Mr. Stark.” Peter assures him, his breath coming in short pants.

He rolls his eyes and follows May out the front door, the spiderling following close behind. Tony can’t help but note how much quieter the kid is than normal. He knows he owes the kid a talk, he wishes he could go back and change how he handled a lot of things over the past six months but he also knows he can’t. The only thing he can do is move forward and try to do better, maybe apologize to the kid if he can work up the nerve and move past his emotional immaturity.

**** 

The ride to the compound takes forever and by the time they get there Tony can tell Happy is ready to kill the kid. May had taken the front seat with he and Peter in the back. Peter had been sitting directly behind Happy and muttering as he studied his Calculus notes, no doubt driving his head of security insane.

“We’re here, Boss.” Happy announces gruffly as they pull up in front of the compound.

“Thanks, Hap.” Tony replies, only somewhat sarcastically, “I’ll call you when they’re ready to go back.”

Happy nods as they all climb out of the car. Tony pauses and watches May take in the large compound, her eyes widening at the sight in front of her. Peter wanders around the car and hitches his backpack over his shoulder. No matter how hard he tries to hide it Tony can see the small spark of awe in his eyes and can tell that he’s internally ‘fanboying’. 

There’s something about the kids puppy like energy that makes Tony smirk. The energy, the enthusiasm had irritated him when he had first met the kid and he knew that it still grated on Happy’s nerves but watching the kid bounce on his heels he can’t find it in himself to be annoyed.

“You wanna stand there and stare or go on a tour?” He asks, even if he’s not particularly annoyed he does had a reputation to uphold.

He sees May nod and adjust her purse on her shoulder, Peter is still practically vibrating as he leads them to the compound. He steps up to the front entrance and enters his code and scans his hand.

“The entire compound is equipped with state of the art security, only the Avengers and Pepper have access to the building. Press is allowed in only when they are given a pass and accompanied by security, all of our press is hand picked by Pepper and vetted thoroughly by Happy and his security team.” He opens the front door and allows everyone to step through, “The security in this building rivals the Pentagon, not to mention it’s filled with the highest volume of enhanced humans in the world… Or it was.” He corrects slowly, “There is literally not a safer place on earth.”

Unless they’re attacked. He keeps that particular thought to himself, sure they have a target on their backs but he has personally seen to it that they have measures and counter measures for every possible scenario he could think of.

“This is the lobby.” He gestures around, “Press room is through there, there’s a front desk to check in guests there.”

The desk is empty since its a Saturday and there’s no real reason to have anyone around, especially since it’s only Pepper, Tony, Rhodey, Happy and Vision who are regularly around this part of the compound. He leads the way past the lobby through to another door equipped with a keypad and hand scanner.

“Through here is the Avengers living quarters.”

He steps through the doors and waits as the small group follows him. He leads the way up a staircase that opens up on to the main living area.

“This is the main living area, kitchen, dining area and living room.” He gestures around, “There’s a games room too, video games, board games, the works.”

The kids eyes are wide as saucers as he looks around the immaculately kept space. Tony looks to the kitchen and can’t help but remember the morning before everything turned to shit.

_‘What am I running a air b &b for a biker gang?’._

He snaps himself out of it and motions for the small group to follow him down a hallway.

“Bedrooms are all in this hallway.” He gestures to the doors, “Doors are marked with names, stay out of the ones that aren’t yours.”

_Not that any of them are filled anymore_. He rolls his eyes at the though and pushes forward to the door at the end of the hallway.

“This is your room, kid.” He opens the door and steps inside followed closely by May and the kid who is looking around in awe.

The rooms are all similar in layout there is a queen sized bed in the middle of the back wall, he’d had Pepper pick colours and she had gone with a navy blue for the back wall that the bed was on and a grey for the rest. The comforter on the bed is grey and the accent pillows are all navy blue. There is a dresser with a flatscreen on it on the left side of the room next to the closet door and a desk and bookshelves on the right side of the room. It is simple and pretty empty, he normally lets whoever is living in the room decide how they want to decorate. There are onlytwo personal touches he had added, the desktop computer on the kids desk with three screens is one of them. The picture frame on the bedside table is the other. The picture frame doesn’t have an actual photo but rather just a black background with a thin grey line running through it. To anybody else it would make no sense but he can tell by the kid’s face when his eyes land on it that he understands exactly what it means.

‘ _Don’t do anything I would do… and definitely don’t do anything I wouldn’t do… There’s a little grey area in there, that’s where you operate.’_

_“_ The computer is yours to use, I have F.R.I.D.A.Y monitoring your search history though.” He gives Peter a pointed look, “No porn.”

The kid’s face turns beet red and he sputters something that Tony quickly waves off, he sees a small smirk on May’s face and silently high-fives himself for that small victory.

There’s a few hidden features in the room but he’ll leave them for the kid to discover later, he leads the way out of the room and points to the door at the end of the hall, one door down from the kids room.

“That’s my room.” He gestures, “And Pepper’s too of course, when she’s actually home.”

Which hasn’t been horribly often as of late, he knows she’s busy but God he misses her when she’s not around.

He leads them back down the hallway and through the living space, he gives them a quick tour of the games room and the library and then down the hallway where the offices and board rooms are.

“Pepper and I both have our own offices here, Bruce has an office attached to his lab, I’ll show you that wing in a minute, Cap, Rhodey and Nat all have offices in this hallway too, everyone else just works out of their rooms. No one else does a lot of interfacing with other agencies so they don’t really need offices.”

_Or they used to._ He silently tells his brain to shut up and forget about the Rogues for ten minutes.

He leads them out of the living quarters and to the large bridge that brings them across to the training centre. He punches in the code to get through to the training centre and leads the small group in.

“This is the first gym.” He motions around the mostly empty room, “We do most of our indoor training exercises in here.” He guides them through another door to a room that is filled with gym equipment, “This is where we actually work out.” He gestures to the boxing ring in the corner and then to the doors next to it, “Changing rooms and showers are through there.”

He leads them to the next area and ignores the equipment set up for Rhodey’s physical therapy, another reminder of the fallout of his crappy decisions.

“Medbay is through there.” He gestures to the doors to his left, “I would take you through but they’re doing maintenance and cleaning today. It’s a state of the art medical facility, the best doctors and equipment in the world, all of them have signed NDA’s and are specially trained to deal with enhanced humans.”

“Like Peter.”

It’s the first time she’s spoken since they entered the building and it makes Tony pause in his somewhat robotic speech.

“Yeah.” He agrees, “Regular doctors wouldn’t know how to deal with Peter’s enhanced metabolism, he needs special medication for pretty much everything, he burns through regular medication too quickly. The doctors we employ here are aware of everyone’s unique situations and treatment plans are in place for each resident.”

It is a system he and Bruce had personally seen to. 

“I didn’t know any of that.” May says quietly.

Tony spares a glance at Peter and can see the distress on the kids face at his aunts distress. “We still have a lot of work to do.” Tony admits, “I’ve managed to create a painkiller that will work for minor injuries and I’m working out the kinks on an anesthetic I hope we won’t need but biomedical engineering isn’t really my area.”

It is one of the reasons he is working so hard to bring the Avenger’s back together. They need each other, no matter how much he hates Cap in that moment he knows that the world needs them as a unit and they need each other as a unit. Functioning alone is doable for awhile but not forever.

“What else do I need to know?” May asks.

Tony glances over at the kid again to find that he is still staring down at the floor.

“What has he told you?”

“That he got bit by a spider that gave him powers.” May replies with a shrug, “He can stick to stuff and he has heightened senses.”

“That’s the jist of it.” Tony agrees, “There’s also the fact that he is probably one of the strongest enhanced individuals on the planet, rivalling only Captain America… His metabolism is absolutely insane now, he needs to be eating a lot more than he used to to keep up with it.”

He sees Peter flash him an angry look out of the corner of his eye and he can’t quite figure out why but dismisses it as a problem for later.

“Other than that he’s still the same old nerd that you know and love.”

“Hey!” Peter protests indignantly.

Tony rolls his eyes and turns his attention back to May, “Look I know it’s a lot to process, why don’t we finish what’s left of the tour and then you and I can sit down and I’ll give you a run down of the specifics.”

May seems to consider it for a moment before nodding. He leads them through the rest of the training centre, shows them Bruce’s closed up lab and his own personal lab, something very few people have seen. The kid almost dies of excitement and he can’t stop the quiet chuckle as he watches him bounce around the room chattering excitedly. He walks over to his work station and pulls up the holograms of his newest suit designs for the Iron Spider.

“Here Kid.” He drags the kids attention away from the wall of Iron Man suits, “Take a look at the mockups for your next suit upgrades while I talk to your aunt.”

He can tell by the look on Peter’s face that he knows exactly what Tony’s trying to do but he can also tell that the kid is too excited to care as he lunges to take a look at the holograms.

“Don’t touch anything while I’m gone okay, we’ll just be in the office.”

He leads May to the small office off of his lab, a simple room with a desk and a couple of chairs that he’s never actually had reason to use. He patiently answers every question she throws at him to the best of his ability and tells her honestly when he has no idea what the answers are.

“So what do you want then?” She asks after she’s gone through every other question she can think of.

“What do you mean?”

“Peter.” She nods through the glass wall to where the kid is flipping through suit designs, “You don’t just do all of this for no reason, not for some kid from Queens who isn’t even an Avenger, he told me he turned you down.”

“He did.” Tony confirms, “I made a lot of mistakes with him.” He admits quietly, “You know all of them now, I royally screwed up and I know that… I wanna make it better, I really think that Peter can be amazing if he has the right training, not just as Spider-Man, hell the kid is a genius, you know that, he even keeps up with me and I can only think of one other person who can do that.”

“So you want to study him?”

“No.” Tony replies quickly, “I want to keep him sheltered from exactly that, he’s a kid, not a scientific experiment but he is different and he’s gotten good at dealing with it but he still needs help and I think I can give him that.”

“But why?” May asks again, “I mean I get why Spider-Man appeals to you but why Peter?”

“I don’t think they’re two separate people.” Tony replies with a shrug, “when I look at the kid I see a lot of potential and I just want to give him the opportunity to achieve it.”

“That still doesn’t answer my question.”

Tony sighs and crosses his arms over his chest. “Everyone knew my father, or at least knew of him but they only knew Howard Stark the weapons mogul not Howard Stark the man… He was not agood father, he was never there to encourage me, no matter what I did it was never enough it always could’ve been better… I never wanted for anything but there was still a lot of neglect and shame there… I’m just trying to break that cycle.”

“Peter is not neglected.” May snaps.

“I know he’s not.” Tony raises his hand to stop her, “You are the best person for that kid and he loves you more than anything in the world, he’s your kid and I get that, I respect that.” He glances over at Peter again, “But he’s part of _this_ world now and if something happens to him in this world that’s on me, I want to make sure that he’s as safe as he can be, I want to make sure he’s the best he can be.”

“And if two years down the road he decides he wants to flip burgers instead of being Spider-Man?”

Tony shrugs, “That would be cool too, I like burgers.” He uncrosses his arms, “I just want to make sure that he has the opportunity to do more if he wants to.”

“We’re not a charity case, Mr. Stark.”

Tony shrugs again, “Never thought you were.” He shoves his hands in his pockets and leans his hip against the desk, “I’m worried about his safety, there’s nothing either of us can say or do that’s going to stop him from going out and being Spider-Man so let me at least make it safe.”

“I’m not saying yes.” She says slowly, “But if I did how would you want to do this?”

“You’re his parent you decide.” He replies, “Since he’d have to come upstate to do training it might make it easier on him to spend the night though.”

May bites her lip and seems to consider it for a moment before speaking. “I work nights every other weekend, I don’t want to leave him home alone and I definitely don’t want him going out when I’m not home to take care of him if something happens.” She shifts and studies Tony, “He can come here then, if that works for you.”

“That’s fine with me, I’ll have Happy pick him up Friday’s after school and bring him back Sunday at whatever time is good for you.” Tony replies easily, “Three days a week I go into Stark Industries, check on R&D that kind of thing, what if he came in with me after school on those days? Actually did an internship at SI?”

May narrows her eyes at him but sighs, “Only if it doesn’t interfere with his school work.”

“School comes first, always.” Tony agrees, “I’ll make sure to check in with him and keep an eye on everything.”

“And if I decide it’s too much I get to say stop and you respect that.” May adds.

Tony has to fight against the childish and probably inappropriate reply that immediately comes to mind and simply nods.

“He’s your kid, you have the final say.”

“And if he says that he doesn’t want to do this anymore you accept that, no coercing him into staying.”

He makes a face, “Coercion isn’t really my style.”

They work out a few more details before May finally relents and agrees to the entire thing. He would never admit it to anyone but telling the kid absolutely makes his week, the way Peter’s eyes light up and he sputters an acceptance brings him more joy than he thought he could feel.

He shows them the Olympic sized pool and gives them a quick tour of the grounds before leading back to the car.

“Okay so next weekend is my night shift weekend.” May says after Peter has said goodbye and climbed into the car.

“Happy will pick the kid up from school on Friday and bring him here.” He sees Happy roll his eyes out of the corner of his eye but ignores it. “I won’t be at SI at all this week, I have some stuff going on in DC so we’ll start the internship next week.”

May nods and hesitates for a moment, “I still don’t like you but thank you Mr. Stark… For helping Peter.”

He smirks at her honesty. “Call me Tony.”

May purses her lips and glances up at the sky, “May.” She finally offers.

“See you later May.”


	2. Chapter Two

Tony is crawling into bed when Pepper finally gets home that night. It’s after one in the morning and he’s sure that she only left her office in New York sometime after eleven. She seems surprised to find him already in bed but she doesn’t comment on it.

“How did today go?” She asks as she peels off her blazer and gathers a clean pair of underwear and one of his old t-shirts.

“I get him three nights a week and every other weekend.” He hears her chuckle as she wanders into their on-suite bathroom, “What’re you laughing about?”

“You’ve spent years dodging paternity suits and you’ve somehow still ended up with a kid and a custody agreement.”

He opens his mouth to argue with her and then closes it abruptly because really, she’s not wrong. Talking with May had felt a lot like working out a custody agreement, not that he knew what that was like. _You’re not his father._ He silently reminds himself, he already likes the kid and that’s bad enough as it is. He needs to keep his distance while still being there for the kid, he needs to maintain a professional relationship. He cannot allow himself to get attached, he’s a Stark and Stark’s destroy everything they touch, he can’t do that to the kid.

****

By the time he gets home from DC on Friday it’s already 4:30 and he’s exhausted. He lets himself into his room and throws his jacket onto the bed and falls face first onto the mattress with a groan.

“F.R.I.D.A.Y?”

_“Yes Boss?”_

“Can you get me an ETA on Happy and the kid?”

_“Mr. Hogan and Mr. Parker will be arriving in approximately thirty minutes.”_ F.R.I.D.A.Y announces, _“would you like me to tell you when they get here?”_

“Sure, thanks, Fri.”

_“You’re welcome, Boss”_

He buries his face back in the mattress and groans again. He gives himself ten minutes to breath, ten minutes to get his shit together before he has to put on a brave face for the kid. The Accords are going to be the death of him, he’s almost got the rogue Avengers pardoned, he would be surprised if they weren’t home with their families by the holidays but that doesn’t mean he has the the rest of the Accords sorted to his liking.

His ten minutes must go on longer than he thinks because before he knows it F.R.I.D.A.Y is announcing the arrival of Peter and Happy. He rolls himself out of bed with a loud groan and silently curses getting older before quickly changing into a pair of jeans and an old Black Sabbath t-shirt. He’s just making his way down the hallway as Peter comes bounding into the common area with an awestruck look on his face.

“Hey, Mr. Stark!” The kid is practically vibrating he’s so excited, “This is so cool! I mean I get to spend the whole weekend here!”

“I know, Kid.” He gives an indulgent chuckle, “I’m the one that planned it remember?”

Except short of setting up the date he hasn’t planned anything and he realizes that he has this kid, this super high energy kid, in his care for the next forty-eight hours. He’s just glad that they are mostly past the kid stuttering awkwardly every time they speak. Peter is still in awe of everything around him but at least he can form complete sentences without stumbling over every other word in a way that makes Tony want to pull out his own hair.

“I mean, yeah of course.” He replies, “Sorry.”

Tony waves him off, “Nothing to be sorry for, did you bring your suit?”

“Yeah, I brought everything with me.” He reaches back and pats his backpack and then lifts the small duffle bag he’s holding in his other hand.

“Wanna head down to the lab?” Peter nods so enthusiastically he can’t help his own grin, “I had some ideas for your webshooters.”

The kid absolutely lights up at that and Tony only half listens to the none-stop chatter as they make their way down to the lab. Once he gets the kid set up at a work bench the chatter dies down considerably but doesn’t stop completely. Really it’s the silence that envelopes the lab almost an hour later that alerts him that something isn’t quite right. He looks up from the gauntlet he’s working on and glances over to the kid who is hunched limply over his web shooter. He’s not unconscious but the way he’s completely silent and holding his head in his hands doesn’t do much to reassure him.

“You okay there, Kid?”

“Mhm.”

That’s more concerning, he stands up and makes his way over to the kid, “Pete? What’s going on kid, talk to me?” 

Peter mumbles something that Tony can’t quite understand and the panic settles deep in his chest.

“F.R.I. read his vitals.” He demands quickly.

_“Mr. Parker’s vitals are stable.”_

“Well something’s wrong.” He shoots back.

_“Mr. Parker appears to be displaying symptoms of hypoglycaemia.”_

“Low blood sugar?” Tony asks incredulously, “What do I do?”

_“May I suggest giving him some juice to bring up his blood sugar.”_

He bolts to the mini-fridge in the corner of his lab and yanks the door open.

“I don’t have any juice F.R.I!”

_“Soda would also work.”_

That he does have, he reaches into the fridge and pulls out a coke. He grabs a straw out of the cupboard and rushes back to Peter who is now completely hunched over the lab table. He places his hand on top of Peter’s head and gently helps him raise his head.

“I need you to take a drink of this, Kid.”

Peter wrinkles his nose as Tony holds the straw to his lips but dutifully takes a sip. It takes him a few minutes but he manages to finish the entire can of Coke and seems to perk up a little bit after.

“What the hell, Kid?” He realizes when the kid flinches that maybe he should’ve been a little bit more gentle with his question but he’d just had the crap scared out of him.

“Sorry.” Peter mumbles under his breath, “That sometimes happens when I don’t eat enough.”

“Why didn’t you tell me you were hungry?” He’s managed to reign in the panic in his voice but there’s still a note of exasperation there.

Peter shrugs and looks down at his hands, “I didn’t want to bother you.”

“Okay, Peter I need you to tell me if you need to eat, especially if you’re about to pass out.” He scrubs his hands over his face.

“Sorry.” Peter replies, “It’s been harder to gauge how much I need to eat since the bite.”

Tony narrows his eyes at the kid, “What do you mean?”

“I need to eat a lot more now.” He explains quietly, “Like _a lot_ more but normally I can get by if I just keep snacking… May already does too much, I don’t want her to have to buy more food, normally I just carry protein bars with me and eat those, I ran out yesterday.”

“You…” Tony trails off, he’s trying to wrap his head around the fact that this kid is practically starving himself simply so his aunt doesn’t have to buy more food, “You need to be eating kid, you gotta tell May.”

“Don’t tell May.” He orders sharply, “She’s already started buying more food because you told her I need her to eat more, she doesn’t understand how _much_ more and I want to keep it that way.”

It never ceases to surprise Tony when the kid uses that tone with him, this sweet gentle kid who wouldn’t hurt a fly, who refuses to kill and who only uses his powers for good.

Tony raises his hands in surrender but makes a mental note to find a solution to this problem, he is a genius after all, he should be able to sort this out.

“Okay fine.” He agrees, “No telling May, but you need to eat so when you’re here you tell me the minute you start to feel even a bit peckish, capiche?”

Peter nods but doesn’t give a verbal reply and Tony makes a mental note to always keep snacks on hand and to try and somehow convince May to accept money for groceries.

“And on that note why don’t we order some supper? I’m getting hungry and F.R.I.D.A.Y will call Pepper if I don’t eat soon.” 

It’s a lie. F.R.I.D.A.Y is only programmed to call Pepper if he goes more than sixteen hours without eating or if he spends more than twenty-four hours in the lab without sleeping, but he knows it’s the right thing to say when Peter perks up considerably. He won’t ask for food but he’ll eat if Tony says he’s hungry. He marks that information down for later before turning back to the kid.

“So what do you want? We can pretty much only get Pizza or Chinese delivered out here, downside of being out of the city… I can have something brought from the city but it might take longer.”

“Pizza sounds good.” Peter replies enthusiastically, “if that’s what you want.” He backtracks.

“Pizza sounds great, I’m thinking three larges, what do you like on yours?”

He’ll only eat a few slices but he has no doubt the kid can polish off at least one large on his own and maybe more, and if they have leftovers then they have a snack for later.

“Um…. Meatlovers?” He asks hesitantly.

“Sounds good to me, three large meat lovers coming up.” He widens his eyes and rubs his hands together, “And cheese bread, and whatever weird dipping sauces they have.”

“I like the sweet chilli sauce.”

The kid is getting into it now and Tony can’t help the small feeling of victory at the look on his face.

“You heard the kid F.R.I, order it all to be delivered as soon as possible.”

Normally he would just eat while he works but he has a feeling that that might be frowned upon with the kid.

“Okay pizza will be here soon, why don’t we head upstairs? We can eat in the living room and watch something, you can pick, nothing shi- crappy though.” He catches himself at the last minute but he can tell by the grin on Peter’s face that the kid heard his bad language word.

He brushes thoughts of Steve aside and leads the kid out of the lab and into the living room.

“Have you ever seen Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Mr. Stark?”

He raises and eyebrow at the kid and slowly shakes his head.

“That should be a crime.” The kid replies seriously.

“What is it?”

“It’s a sitcom about Brooklyn detectives, you have to watch it, Mr. Stark!”

The kids enthusiasm is almost contagious, “Alright, alright, but just know if I hate it you lose the right to choose the next show.”

As soon as he says it he regrets it, the kid might take that to heart but Peter just shakes his head and bounces on the balls of his toes.

“It’s impossible to hate Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Sir.”

He cringes lightly at the sir but doesn’t address it. The kid is so excited he refuses to do anything to ruin it.

“Alright then, F.R.I pull up the first episode.”

He gathers up plates, napkins and drinks and deposits them in the living room while the kid bounds around the room. He’s not sure what Peter is doing but he’s willing to let the kid get his nervous energy out as long as he’s not hurting anything.

_“Boss, the pizza has arrived.”_

Tony tells Peter to wash up - and how grossly parental is that? - while he goes to get the pizza. By the time he returns to the living area Peter is sitting on the couch bouncing excitedly. He’s tempted to tell the kid to calm the hell down but he quiets that thought, he can’t begrudge him his exuberance, not when the last time he spent any significant amount of time with the kid he had made him cry.

“Alrighty, Spiderling, let’s get this divided up and then we can watch this ‘spectacular’ show you’ve chosen.”

He opens the boxes and pulls out two pieces for himself and watches Peter help himself to his own two pieces and a few pieces of cheese bread before they settle back and start the episode. He eats his pizza and is surprised to find that he’s actually enjoying the sitcom, he can see Peter mouthing the lines out of the corner of his eye and smirks fondly at the sight. While watching the kid he can see him eyeing the pizza and quickly deduces that he’s still hungry but too polite to eat more.

“Have as much as you want, Kid.” He instructs casually, “I ordered three larges for a reason, chow down.”

Peter seems to study him for a second, probably looking to see if he’s being sincere before diving back into the pizza.

By the time they’ve finished two episodes the kid has eaten a full pizza and most of the cheesy bread and is making his way through a good portion of the second pizza. He wants to remind the kid not to make himself sick but he refrains, he knows that as soon as he opens his mouth the kid will turn into a stuttering, guilty mess.

Peter finally slows down after a pizza and a half and sometime around the fourth episode he stops eating completely.

“Thanks for supper, Mr. Stark.”

“No problem, Kid.” He reaches over and flips the lid on the pizza closed, “What do you think, back to the lab or call it a night for work and switch to a movie?”

“Oh, it’s completely up to you, Sir.” Peter replies quickly, “it’s your house.”

The kid gives nothing away in his earnest expression, other than the fact that he’s desperate to please Tony and that alone makes him want to make the kid happy. He glances down at his watch, almost nine o’clock, he’s not sure what time kids are supposed to go to bed at, he didn’t think to ask May and he assumes it would make him look bad to call and ask her now so it’s up to him to make a judgement call. He decides that midnight seems reasonable, the kid looks more tired now that he’s eaten and it’s that fact that makes his decision for him.

“We have all day tomorrow in the lab.” He says easily, “Let’s watch a movie, it’s been a long day.”

It has been a long day and normally that fact would push him towards the lab but he refuses to teach the kid his unhealthy coping mechanisms. Instead he brings the leftover pizza into the kitchen, grabs a few more cans of pop and heads back into the living room, the kid is curled up into the corner of the couch and the sight makes Tony smile. He quickly tries to push that down because what he’s feeling is certainly not professional and he needs to keep his relationship with the kid professional… It’s just so damn hard when he’s curled up into a little ball with a content smile on his face as he watches TV.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope everyone enjoys! Thank you guys so much for your comments! Check me out on Tumblr!

He’s moderately sure he’s capable of making pancakes. He says moderately because he spent three hours early that morning watching tutorials on YouTube, he had called one of the local grocery stores at six am that morning and had everything he would need delivered. He’s really not sure why he had decided he absolutely had to make a homemade breakfast but the urge had come over him at four am and he hadn’t been able to get past it. It probably didn’t help that he was running on three and a half hours of sleep and the overwhelming urge to make the kid happy.

So now he’s standing in the kitchen surrounded by an unreasonable amount of mixing bowls, a spread of toppings for pancakes that would rival a five star restaurant and what could be considered an excessive amount of bacon and sausage prepped and ready to go, both things slightly more well done than what he would have liked but he’s still proud of himself.

“Did you piss off Pepper again?”

He almost throws the spatula in his hand clear across the room but stops himself at the last minute.

“Honeybear, you’re home.”

“Yeah.” Rhodey responds with an indulgent grin, “I’m home, now what the hell is going on in here?”

“I’m making breakfast.”

“For twelve people?”

He opens his mouth to respond just as the kid shuffles into the room, his curly hair adorably - _no, not adorably_ \- messy and his pyjama’s rumpled. The pyjama’s make him grin, he assumed the kid packed his own pyjama’s but Tony had still left a pair neatly folded and ready to go on his bed. He hadn’t actually expected the kid to wear the pyjamas but there they are in all of their glory. The pants are a warm red flannel covered in Iron Man helmets and the top is a red long-sleeved t-shirt with theArc Reactor.

Tony turns to watch the kid rub his hand over his eyes blearily but he can still see the look of surprise and confusion on Rhodey’s face.

“I smell pancakes.” Peter mumbles.

“You smelled correctly, Kid.” Tony gestures to the spread he’s laid out on the table, “First batch is almost done, but there’s bacon and sausage ready to go if you’re really hungry. I put orange juice, apple juice and chocolate milk on the table too.”

Peter rubs his hands over his eyes as if he’s trying to decide if he’s actually awake. “Wow.”

“I’m going to take that as a compliment.” Tony replies.

“You didn’t have to do all this.”

The protest is weak considering the kid is practically drooling at the sight of the food and Tony can’t help but smirk as he flips three - slightly dark - pancakes onto a plate and hands it over to Peter. The kid turns to go towards the table but stops dead when he sees Rhodey leaning against the counter in full uniform, his reinforced leg braces are more than visible but Peter’s eyes only catch on them for a split second.

“Mr. Colonel Rhodes, Sir.” Peter stumbles awkwardly.

Tony can’t stop the small chuckle at escapes as the kid flushes bright red.

“I’m a big fan of War Machine, I mean Iron Patriot.”

“War Machine is cooler.” Tony mutters under his breath.

“Thanks.” Rhodey replies with a small laugh, “And you are?”

The kid turns to him with wide eyes and Tony wonders how the hell this horrendously awkward kid faces down criminals everyday.

“This is Peter, he’s my intern.”

He can tell by the look on Rhodey’s face that he doesn’t believe it for a second but he keeps that fact to himself as the kid seems to relax.

“Go on and eat before it gets cold, Pete.” He gestures to the table, “I’ll have more ready in a minute, are you eating Platypus?”

He can see Rhodey studying him out of the corner of his eye and smirks triumphantly when the man is physically jolted out of his reverie by his question.

“Uh, yeah I’ll have a few.” Rhodey pauses and looks around the kitchen, “Is Pepper home?”

“No she stayed in the city last night, she’ll be home this afternoon.”

“See vill?”

He raises and eyebrow at Peter and gestures for him to swallow before speaking. The kid flushes red but dutifully swallows his pancakes.

“She will?”

“She should be home by supper, she wants to do a nice dinner the three of us.” Tony replies, “well four of us if Rhodey hangs around, five if Vision shows up.”

“I’m only staying if Vis isn’t cooking.” Rhodey replies as he piles a plate high with bacon and sausage.

“Pepper’s picking food up at that little Italian place in town.” Tony piles a stack of pancakes on Rhodey’s plate before pouring more batter on the griddle, “I didn’t want to leave it up to chance, Pete’s aunt will kill me if I send him home with food poisoning.”

“She would.” Peter agrees, even though they’re both ninety percent sure the kid can’t actually get sick, and if May hasn’t killed him with _her_ cooking then chances are no one can.

Tony snorts and turns back to his pancakes, “How long are you home for this time?” He asks over his shoulder.

“Just the weekend, need to be back in Washington Monday morning, I figured we could fly back together.”

Tony shakes his head, “I won’t be going back until late Monday night, I have plans Monday afternoon.”

He sees the kid glance up from his plate and he doesn’t miss the flash of guilt across his face, Peter gets as far as opening his mouth, no doubt telling Tony that it’s okay if he needs to cancel before Tony gives a slight shake of his head.

Honestly he feels kind of guilty for not taking the kid for internship nights the week before but there had been time sensitive meetings for the Accords that he hadn’t been able to push and someone had casually mentioned Spider-Man and that had been enough for him to insist on being in the room for every single minute of the meeting.On top of that he happens to know that May is working until seven on every night they have internship and she doesn’t want Peter out patrolling if she isn’t home in case something happens. There’s a part of him that agrees with her and he’d rather keep the kid with him until May is home, especially if he’s going to be all the way in Washington.

He silently piles another four pancakes on Peter’s plate before turning back to make his own pancakes. He knows that seven pancakes and whatever sausage and bacon he’s consumed probably won’t completely fill up the kid but he’d thought ahead and ordered a plethora of snacks when he’d ordered the stuff for breakfast and had quickly squirrelled it away in his lab.

By the time he’s done making his pancakes Peter and Rhodey are both almost done eating and he can see the kids leg bouncing anxiously under the table.

“So… What grade are you in Peter?” Rhodey finally asks.

Peter looks over in surprise but seems pleased that Rhodey is taking time to talk to him, “Um, tenth grade, Colonel Rhodes.”

“He goes to Midtown Tech.” Tony adds, and he didn’t mean for it to be there but he recognizes a hint of pride in his voice and judging by Rhodey’s face the other man heard it as well.

“Very impressive.” He gives a small nod, “And just call me Rhodey, I get enough of Colonel Rhodes at work.”

Peter nods and Tony can’t stop the small grin at the pleased look on the kids face, his day is being made before ten o’clock in the morning.

Peter continues to answer Rhodey’s questions as they finish breakfast, growing more relaxed as time goes on. Once they’re done eating Peter insists on doing the dishes, Tony tries to argue with him but the kid is insistent so he finally just lets it go.

“Do you have any homework?” He asks as he carries dishes for the kid to rinse before tossing them in the dishwasher.

“I have a Chem test I should study for and a bit of Calculus homework but I can do that tomorrow night.” Peter replies with a shrug.

“Why don’t you study for a bit this morning?” Tony suggests lightly, “Cramming isn’t going to do you any good.” Rhodey snorts from his spot at the kitchen table, Tony snaps his fingers and points at him with a glare, “Enough out of you.”

He brings the last dish to the counter and can feel Rhodey’s eyes on his back.

“Hey Tones, can you look at something for me in my office?”

He winces at the question but nods. He follows Rhodey out of the living area and down to the offices that nobody besides Rhodey actually use. He waits until Rhodey shuts the door before crossing his arms over his chest.

“Is he yours?”

He’s not eating or drinking but the question is enough to make him choke on his saliva.

“What do you mean is he mine?” He ask incredulously.

“He’s what, fifteen?” Rhodey asks, leaning against his desk to study Tony, “Fifteen years ago you were partying pretty hard, accidents happen.”

“Jesus, Rhodey!” He gestures wildly, “He’s not an accident, well at least not mine, I don’t know if his parents had him planned or not but he’s not mine.”

“Are you sure?” Rhodey asks, “He’s smart like you and he kind of looks like you did at that age.”

“You’re hilarious.” He deadpans, “He’s not mine, James.”

He almost never uses Rhodey’s first name, it feels weird coming out of his mouth but he needs his friend to take him seriously, he needs for him to stop insinuating that the sweet, funny, smart kid in the other room shares any part of his DNA. The idea of a child terrifies him, not for the old reason of just not wanting the responsibility but because the idea of Peter having any Stark DNA in him makes him want to throw up, that kid is perfect and having any part of him as a part of his genetic makeup would just fuck everything up.

He only realizes that he’s hyperventilating when Rhodey’s face appears directly in front of his.

“Tones, I need you to breath, Tony.” He steers Tony over to the nearest chair and helps him sit down, “Come on, breath with me, man.”

He manages to pull in a deep breath, something that hurts like a bitch thanks to all of the scar tissue in his lungs -goddamn Arc Reactor- he can immediately see the relief on Rhodey’s face and does his best to regulate his breathing. It takes him about five minutes but eventually it levels out again and he’s able to breath normally.

“Been awhile since that happened.” He mutters when he feels like he’s not desperate for air.

_Since the ferry episode._ His mind helpfully supplies, he’d had one hell of a panic attack after that particular incident. He can still vividly remember collapsing in his lab, lungs burning and tears streaming down his face as he thought about all of the ways the kid could’ve gotten hurt, all of the ways it would’ve been his fault if something had happened to the kid. It had taken him almost half an hour to calm down that time and he was only grateful that this time seemed to be mild.

“You okay?” Rhodey asks gently.

He runs a hand through his hair and nods, “Yeah, fine, maybe just refrain from pushing about the kid, he’s not mine, okay?”

Rhodey holds up his hands placatingly, “Sure thing, Tones.” He quirks an eyebrow, “How did you end up with him though?”

“He got his internship through the September Foundation.” He lies easily, “He caught my attention.” He feels himself relax slightly as he thinks about the skills the kid demonstrates outside of being Spider-Man. “He can keep up with me in the lab, he’s smart, Rhodey, really smart.”

“How long have you been mentoring him?”

“About three months.” Tony replies, “This is his first time spending the night though.”

Rhodey seems surprised by that information but he nods slowly, “You’re doing good so far.”

Tony snorts and shakes his head, “I’m going to fuck this kid up.”

He has no doubt about that fact but it seems that distancing himself from the kid had actually been worse so he’s just hoping to minimize the damage by keeping a professional distance between them.

“You will if you think like that.” Rhodey reasons, “keep doing what you’re doing and I think you’ll be fine.”

Tony wants to believe him, he really does but he just can’t.

****

Dinner with Pepper goes exactly how Tony imagined it would, the kid is beyond starstruck and rambles awkwardly through the entire process of meeting her and he can tell by the kind smile on Pepper’s face and the soft look in her eyes that she’s already started to fall in love with the teenager. She asks him questions and eventually he gets himself under control enough to give coherent answers and by the time they’re eating desert it’s like they’ve known each other forever.

Tony won’t admit it to himself but he’s a bit jealous. Jealous of the easy way Pepper bonds with the kid and the easy relationship they developed so quickly when the kid still stumbles and mumbles around him. Hell the kid won’t even ask him for food when he’s hungry, the only reason he’d known the kid had needed a snack that afternoon was because his stomach had growled so loud he hadn’t been able to hide it.

He’s sitting up in bed playing around with the schematics for an update on the kids suit on his StarkPad when Pepper climbs in beside him.

“So, how was today?”

She’d asked the question at supper but everyone had been around and Peter had immediately hopped in to nervously stumble through how awesome his day had been.

He shrugs, “It went okay.”

“Peter said it was the best day ever.” Pepper replies dryly.

“Peter is easily impressed.” Tony reminds her.

Pepper rolls her head along the headboard to look at him, “I see why you like him so much.”

It gives him a small thrill to hear his Fiancée say that she likes the kid, it’s a feeling he tries to ignore because there’s no reason for it. It doesn’t matter if she likes his intern and that’s all the kid is. It shouldn’t matter but it does.

“I need to talk to you about something.”

It’s been weighing on his mind since he talked to May the weekend before but he’s kept it to himself, hemming and hawing.

“I hate when you say that.” Pepper states, “Did you do something to destroy my company?”

“Technically it’s my company.”

“Our company where you do twelve percent of the work.” She compromises.

“And I love you for it.” He replies, “Speaking of twelve percent…”

“You don’t want to sell the tower.” She finishes with a small sigh.

“I haven’t decided yet.” He shrugs, “I just want to keep my options open, besides it’s a good piece of property to have in our back pocket.”

“Yes.” Pepper agrees sarcastically, “this is _all_ about smart business choices, not at all about the kid sleeping down the hall.”

He opens his mouth to respond but is cut short by the sound of his StarkPhone buzzing on the bedside table.

**Aunt Hottie:** _How did today go?_

**Tony Stark:** _The kid didn’t call and ramble for an hour?_

**Aunt Hottie:** _Of course he did but he lies to protect me all the time so I’m asking you._

**Tony Stark:** _It was good, he behaved all day, Rhodey showed up so he fangirled for a few hours._

**Aunt Hottie:** _Okay, he said Happy would bring him home around four tomorrow._

**Tony Stark:** _Sounds good._

“May’s checking in.” Tony supplies when Pepper looks over his shoulder.

Pepper rolls her eyes when she sees what May’s contact name is but doesn’t comment on it, she’s used to him. For as many things as he is he’s never in his life been a cheater.

“How’re you enjoying having a custody agreement?”

“You’re hilarious.” Tony deadpans.

Pepper chuckles softly before flicking off the lamp on her side of the bed, “I’m going to bed.”

He turns off his StarkPad and puts it on his table before laying down, “Lights down to zero, FRI.”


	4. Chapter 4

The compound is too quiet the next weekend and he hates not having the kid around. He thinks back to three months earlier when the kids constant chatter grated on his nerves and he almost wishes for that time back, his life felt slightly less empty then. He almost wishes he was in DC instead of alone at the compound. Rhodey is in DC, Pepper is in the city and Vision is who knows where doing god only knows what.

He pours all of his free time into rereading and making notes on the accords, finishing the last touches on the IronSpider and fixing the bugs on the latest model of StarkPhone.Saturday night he checks in with Happy and listens to the kids voicemails for that week (he will not admit to anyone that it’s the second time that week he’s listened to them). He smiles as he listens to Peter ramble about his patrols and school, he makes notes about modifications on the kids current suit and fights the urge to text the kid.

He’s bored and he’s lonely, he has to forcibly remind himself that it would be weird to message his intern on a random Saturday evening.

****

By the end of his third weekend with the kid he’s struggling to remember where to draw the line. They’ve finally gotten to the point where Peter isn’t constantly stumbling over his words and trying to do everything in his power to please Tony and it’s this development that makes the kid even more endearing to him. It’s hard to keep professional boundaries when he knows what the kids favourite cereal is and how much he loves Star Wars (even though it’s a struggle for Tony to sit through it) he knows the kids favourite cartoon and has seen the first two seasons of Brooklyn Nine Nine with him.

It’s the Sunday of the third weekend, the third week in October that he notices something off with the kid. Tony’s pouring himself his fourth cup of coffee for the morning when the kid wanders in, his curly hair mussed and bags under his eyes. He looks like he hasn’t slept in days and now that it’s caught Tony’s attention he realizes that the kid had been kind of out of it the day before. He’d still been his usual bouncy self but it had been more forced and he’d missed a few relatively easy questions Tony had shot his way. Tony hadn’t pushed it, he’d brushed it off and chalked it up to stress from school or some other typical teenage drama. Now he wishes he had pushed it a bit more, the kid looks like hell. It’s also significantly earlier than Peter’s ever woken up when staying at the compound so he hasn’t made any sort of breakfast yet.

“Hey, Kid.” He greets, his usual cheer somewhat diminished, “Why’re you up so early?”

Peter shrugs and slides onto one of the stools at the counter, “Just woke up.”

Tony doesn’t believe that for a second but he has no real desire to fight with the kid at seven thirty in the morning.

“Okay…” He takes a sip of his coffee unsure how to proceed, “Why don’t you go watch some TV, I’ll whip up some eggs, scrambled, right?”

“I’m not really hungry.”

And that in itself is alarming.

“Are you getting sick? Can you get sick?”

It’s never actually come up and now he’s suddenly and violently aware of how little they know about Peter’s mutation.

“I’m not sick.” Peter assures him quickly, “Pretty sure I can’t get sick, haven’t gotten sick since the bite.”

“Okay…” Tony says slowly he wants to ask the kid if he’s okay but that feels way to close to _feelings_ and Tony Stark doesn’t do feelings, “You still need to eat, Kiddo.”

It’s the first time he’s called him anything that could resemble a term of endearment, he rarely calls the kid anything but ‘kid’ and Kiddo seems one step further into unprofessional territory. He can’t bring himself to regret it.

“Why don’t you go and watch your show for a bit and we’ll eat in half an hour.” He suggests.

He’s trying to compromise while keeping his anxiety at bay and the kid seems to cave under it with a small nod. He watches Peter shuffle into the living room and flop down on the couch before quietly asking F.R.I.D.A.Y to turn on the TV to YTV. He sees Spongebob appear on the screen and silently wonders to himself when he began to recognize kids shows.

He waits until Peter appears to be settled in before pulling out a pan to make some bacon. He’s been binge watching cooking tutorials on YouTube since he became responsible for taking care of a teenager part-time. He’d been feeding the kid take out for supper but that still left breakfast and lunch. Sandwiches were easy enough but Pepper had casually informed him the night before that he couldn’t actually feed the kid takeout for supper every night. She was a week into a two week stint in California but he had physically felt her rolling her eyes when he’d told her what he was feeding Peter.

He finishes the bacon and glances over to the couch and can only see the top of the kids head peaking out over the arm rest. He puts the pan on the back burner and silently walks over to the living room. Peter is passed out cold on the couch, his knees are tucked up to his chest, one fist is tucked under his chin and the other arm is dangling off the couch.

He grabs one of Pepper’s fluffy blankets out of the basket in the corner and drapes it over the kid before gently moving his arm back against his body. Peter stirs slightly and Tony has to physically resist the urge to run his fingers through his curls.

“Bring the volume down to half, Fri.” He instructs quietly once he’s sure Peter is still asleep.

He would turn it off all the way but he’s not sure if the change would wake Peter up or not and he’s not willing to take that chance. He makes sure the kid is soundly asleep before slipping out of the room and down to his lab.

“Let me know when he wakes up Fri.”

“ _Yes Boss.”_

He makes his way down to the lab and tinkers with a circuit board for a few minutes before putting it down.

“Fri, how long did the kid sleep for last night?”

“ _Mr. Parker slept for just under an hour last night before waking up in considerable distress.”_

“What do you mean considerable distress?”

“ _Judging by his heart rate and inability to catch his breath I would hypothesize that Mr.Parker had a nightmare that resulted in a panic attack.”_

That draws him up short, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“ _You set up specific protocols to not inform you if any Avengers were showing signs of emotional distress unless they specifically requested it, Mr.Parker denied my offer to alert you to his condition.”_

He had set that protocol up to give the other Avengers privacy, F.R.I.D.A.Y had been programmed to offer assistance but if the offer was denied she was not to go against it unless the situation was dire.

“From now on you tell me when the kid is in distress.” He orders.

The other Avengers are adults who can make decisions on how to deal with their inevitable PTSD, Peter is a child who shouldn’t have to deal with that alone.

“ _Are you sure you’d like to invade his privacy like that, Boss?”_

“I’m not asking for his search history or to see his text messages.” Tony replies in exasperation.

“ _I would not show you even if you asked.”_

He rolls his eyes at his AI’s sass, “You know I made you right?”

_“Yes, Boss.”_

He can hear the sarcasm in her computerized voice and he smirks to himself, he loves his A.I. It had taken him awhile to get used to a voice that wasn’t JARVIS’ talking to him in the morning but he’s grown fond of F.R.I.D.A.Y over the years and he knows Peter loves her, he’s caught the kid talking to her when he thought he was alone more than once.

He works in silence for another hour before F.R.I.D.A.Y.’s voice breaks him out of his train of thought.

_“Boss, Mr. Parker is showing signs of waking up.”_

“Any signs of nightmares?”

_“None at all.”_

‘Perfect’ Tony thinks to himself as he wipes off his hands and makes sure everything of vital importance is turned off before making his way back to the main living area of the compound. By the time he starts cracking eggs to make scrambled eggs Peter is just waking up. He hears the kid stretch and groan quietly when pours himself another cup of coffee.

“Morning Kid.” Tony turns to smirk at the kid who is rubbing his eye with one hand and messing his hair up with the other, “Well, morning again.”

“What time is it?” He slurs.

“About nine o’clock, breakfast will be ready in about five, after breakfast I want you to check something out in the gym.”

He’s pulled Cap’s exercise equipment out of storage and set it back up, he wants to see how strong the kid really is and they haven’t had a lot of time to experiment, not with Rhodey hanging around most weekends that Peter’s been around.

****

It turns out he kid is way stronger than he had expected, strong enough that even the equipment that proves a bit of a challenge for Cap is easy for him. The kid needs some coaching to use some of it properly and he’s never wished for Nat more in his life. He can teach the kid boxing, plans to call Happy in to help but the more challenging hand to hand and self defence is more up Nat’s alley. He knows the basics but with his suits almost always on hand he relies more on that, even with the safety precautions he’s built in the kids current suit leaves that element of safety to be desired. The fabric is strong, a thinner version of the kevlar Cap’s suit had been made out of but it’s still not quite where he’d like it to be and he can’t wait to finish the last touches on the Iron Spider suit.

****

Maybe it’s because the kid had been up all night the previous night but that night passes without incident and Tony is relieved when F.R.I.D.A.Y informs him that Peter slept through the night. The rest of their weekend goes off without a hitch, they spend Sunday in the lab upgrading Peter’s web shooters before Happy picks him up at two o’clock in the afternoon to bring him home.

He reaches out and squeezes the kids shoulder as he says goodbye. It’s the first real physical contact they’ve had since the day he’d offered the kid a spot on the team and Peter absolutely glows.

He makes a note to himself to do it more often if only to see that look on the kids face again, and then he silently reminds himself that he’s not crossing that line.

But goddamn it he wants to see that wide smile on Peter’s face again.


	5. Chapter 5

He spends the next four days in DC, he’d told the kid there wouldn’t be any internship days over a week ago - the kid had nodded and assured him it was fine but he’d seen the barely concealed disappointment - and he finds himself missing it more than normal. He listens to the messages left for Happy at night when he’s alone in his hotel room and bored out of his skull, missing Pepper and even if he won’t admit it to himself, Peter.

Every once in awhile he’ll get a text from Pepper assuring him that everything is fine but the time difference and their multitudes of meetings make anything more than quick texts or short phone calls impossible. He debates calling the kid on the fourth night, has his contact information pulled up and everything but eventually decides against it. They’re not there yet.

Instead he shoots a text off to the other teenager in his life and takes a quick minute to consider the idea of Harley and Peter in the same room together. He shudders at the thought, that would be a fucking nightmare, especially if the two boys hit it off as well as he suspected they would.

**Tony:** _Hey Kid, how’s it going?_

It’s half an hour before he gets a response and he’s just about to conclude that the kid is already in bed when his phone buzzes.

**Harley Kenner:** _Everything is fine, school’s good, Emma’s good. How’s everything there? Heard about everything going to shit with Captain America._

And fuck if that doesn’t sting a little bit, but Harley doesn’t know any better and much like Tony himself the kid has a knack for saying exactly the wrong thing without meaning too. Pepper had met Harley once over video chat and had just raised an eyebrow at the similarities between the two, Rhodey had asked Tony if he was the result of a one night stand - That had gone over about as well as it had when he’d asked about Peter, minus the massive panic attack -.

He smiles as he thinks of Harley’s little sister, he’d spoken to her a few times when he’d video chatted with the teen. At seven years old she was the opposite of her older brother in almost every way, sweet and innocent but still with a touch of sass.

**Tony:** _Everything is just peachy here, down half the team but surviving._

**Harley:** _Don’t be a pussy about it now._

That makes him snort and he knows that’s all he’ll get out of Harley for the night. He likes that the teen has never had any fear or reverence for him, Iron Man maybe but Tony Stark? None what so ever. He’s always said it like it is and it makes Tony feel comfortable doing the same. He tries to be a decent role model for both of the kids in his life but he feels less of a responsibility with Harley, sure the kid has a decent sized trust fund and a way to pay for college but Tony doesn’t live with same fear every minute that he does with Peter and that lets him be a little more relaxed with Harley. Harley had seen him at his worst, well maybe not his worst, but definitely lower than Peter has ever seen him and he feels like he needs to shelter Peter, be better for Peter.

****

The call from May is a welcome surprise after he confirms that everything is okay with Peter. Her call comes as he and Rhodey are boarding the privet jet back to the compound and he has a moment of dread when he sees her name flash across the call display and that panic comes across in his greeting.

“Is he okay?” Are the first words out of his mouth.

_“He’s fine, hello by the way.”_

He sees Rhodey raise his eyebrow as they take their seats on the jet.

“Hi, sorry, you sure everything’s okay?”

_“I would have opened with oh my god he’s been stabbed, if he’d been stabbed, Tony.”_

“It’s not like you call just to say hello.” Tony reminds her.

Thank God the kid hasn’t managed to get seriously injured in the last two months, Tony’s not sure he could handle that but May really doesn’t call to say hello so this is still alarming.

_“Do you want me to call more often?”_

He knows she’s messing with him but he’s never been one to shy away from a challenge, “You could, we could share trade secrets on the kid, form our own little club.”

_“Do you know trade secrets about my kid?”_

_“_ He likes gummy bears in his pancakes which I think is disgusting.”

_“Yeah I normally don’t let him do that at home.”_ There’s no real heat behind it though, just a smallamount of mirth at the idea of Peter tricking Tony into letting him have gummy monstrosity pancakes.

“Should I start saying no?”

_“Nah, it’s once every two weeks, let him have his fun, besides from what I hear he more than works it off when he’s at your place.”_

“He does.” Tony reassures her, “Hey, while I’ve got you what time is he supposed to go to bed at at home?”

_“Are you asking if he has a bedtime?”_ Judging by the outright humour in May’s voice it’s a stupid question.

“I mean I wouldn’t put it in those terms but I guess.”

_“He’s fifteen.”_ May reminds him unnecessarily - the kid reminds him frequently - “ _He has a curfew, it’s ten on school nights and eleven thirty on weekends in case you were wondering, but he doesn’t have a bedtime… I try and remind him to go to bed if he’s being particularly stubborn but he doesn’t have a bedtime… Did you give him a bedtime, Tony?”_

He cringes at the question, “Maybe… It was midnight _,_ I’ll uh, I’ll tell him doesn’t matter anymore.”

_“No.”_ May replies gently, “ _Your house your rules, we need the same ground rules for him but how you run your house is up to you, besides twelve isn’t too early or too late, it’s a good bedtime, Tony.”_

While they’re on the topic he wants to ask May how the kid has been sleeping at her place but he doesn’t want to do it in front of Rhodey, it’s between him, May and the kid.

“Okay I’ll leave it.” He replies, “So, what’s up May?” His voice isn’t rude, he just wants to steer the conversation back to the original reason she called.

“I know it’s not your weekend and so not your responsibility but I got called in to work nights tonight-“

“I can take him for the night.” Tony cuts in easily, “I can get Hap to pick him up after he’s done with his friend tonight.”

He’s very aware of Rhodey’s presence and is trying to convey it to May who immediately makes a hum of acknowledgement.

_“I can tell him not to go to Neds tonight.”_ May offers, “ _He can miss one night.”_

He doesn’t think the kid will quite agree with that logic but he doesn’t want to fight with May, her kid her rules.

_“He could use a night off anyway, he’s had a ton of tests and projects this week, he needs a break.”_

“Alright, whatever you say, we’ll take it easy tonight, eat candy and watch tv.”

May chuckles quietly over the line, _“Thanks, Tony.”_ And because she’s May Parker and refuses to bend to his will _“I still don’t like you.”_

“Few people do.” He replies easily, “Shoot him a text and let him know Happy’ll pick him up after school, they can run by your place and pick up whatever he needs.”

_“Alright, I can drive up and pick him up tomorrow.”_

“It’s not a big deal, I can have Happy bring him back.” Really he’s thinking of the gas money May shouldn’t have to spend, “Unless your trying to do a pop in home inspection.”

_“It’s not a pop in if you know about it in advanced.”_

“Of course.” Tony replies, “Tell you what, come up in the afternoon, take the morning to sleep. Pep is home for the weekend and I’m sure you two will hit it off.” And if that thought isn’t fucking terrifying. “Pete can show you the bot he’s been working on.”

The thing is pretty damn cute if Tony is willing to admit it and the kid has been working his ass off on it.

May sighs softly over the line, “ _I hate that you know exactly what buttons to push.”_

“Pep says the same thing, see you two will hit off just fine, see you tomorrow May.”

_“Good-bye Tony.”_ Her voice is only slightly exasperated when she cuts the call.

He slips his phone into his pocket.

“I know that grin.” Rhodey comments, “You’re getting attached.”

“Am not.” Tony argues, “but the kid’s spending the night tonight, Aunt Hottie’s gotta work.”

“I thought it wasn’t your weekend?”

“It’s not.” Tony replies with a shrug, “But she needs the extra shift and she doesn’t like leaving Pete home alone, neither do I.” He adds that last part without thinking and glares at Rhodey’s smug little smirk.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry for the delay! I was recently offered a very unexpected job which kind of turned my schedule upside down, please forgive me! Here is a new chapter and once again I am sorry!
> 
> Thank you all so much for your wonderful reviews they make my day!

He’s in the kitchen with Pepper whipping up supper - Caesar salad and some sort of stuffed chicken thing Pepper had ordered from the grocery store with mashed potatoes and green beans because apparently vegetables were important to kids or something - when Peter shows up. He’s does his best to come off as his usual cheery self but Tony sees right through it and judging by the look on Pepper’s face when the kid has his back turned she sees it too.

“So how was school, Kid?” Tony asks as he attempts to mash the potatoes before finally giving up and grabbing the terrifying whipping thing Pepper bought when she was going through her baking phase.

“It was okay, I got my Chem test back.”

“What did you get?” Pepper inquires.

Peter seems to perk up a bit and leans down to grab his bag, he pulls out what Tony assumes is the paper before sliding it across the counter. He’s not close enough to see it but Pepper’s face says it all.

“Peter this is amazing!” She exclaims, walking around the counter to give the kid a hug from behind.

Tony puts down the mixer and steps forward to look at the test, he had been expecting high eighties or nineties but the red pen marking 100% across the top of the page makes his eyes bug out and a huge smile spread across his face.

“This is great, Pete!” He exclaims, he knows he should tone it down, that he’s way to excited but holy crap the kid did so well! He wants to hug the kid but that almost seems like too much so he grabs the paper off the counter and turns to the fridge, “It’s going on the fridge!”

“Mr. Stark you really don’t have to do that.” Peter sputters, “It’s really not that impressive.”

“Impressive?” Tony exclaims incredulously, “It’s literally perfection, Pete.”

He’s digging around for a magnet in a drawer before finally giving up, “I’ll be right back!”

He leaves Pepper and the kid in the kitchen before bolting down to the lab to grab what is probably a way too big magnet. When he returns back to the kitchen Pepper has gone back to cooking and Peter is gathering dishes to set the table and the scene is so domestic it makes him pause. There’s a small feeling of fear, a bit of panic but he’s also overwhelmingly happy at the sight. He grabs the test off of the counter and uses the industrial magnet to stick it to the fridge, it’s overkill but he doesn’t have any normal people magnets.

“FRI, order me some magnets.”

_“Anything particular, Boss?”_

Tony waves dismissively, “You know what I like.”

“Are you done there?” Pepper asks with a small but fond smile.

“Yes, look, see! Place of honour!”

The kid is watching Tony with a small flush on his cheeks and an unsure smile on his face. He feels like he should offer the kid a reward or something but he knows he’ll get shot down, he makes a mental note to just buy something and leave it in his room.

Pepper shakes her head and moves over to the table for a minute and Peter makes his way back into the kitchen.

“You really don’t have to do that, Mr. Stark.” Peter says again.

“I know I don’t.” He replies with a shrug, “But it’s a big deal.”

He really wants to tell Peter he’s proud of him, to tell him that he sees all of the hard work Peter puts in to juggling school, his friends, home, the internship (which Tony keeps purposefully light) and being Spider-Man.

“C’mon, let’s go get you fed before your stomach caves in.” He turns to the table, “FRI let Colonel buzzkill that dinner is ready.”

“ _Okay, Boss.”_

So he’s still a little irritated by Rhodey’s attitude after May’s phone call, he’s only human. It’s a diversion, the small amount of emotion he’d showed was making him uncomfortable but the kid seems pretty pleased with himself so Tony takes that as a small win.

****

Tony was in bed at a reasonable time, something Pepper had not commented on but had offered a proud smile for. They had eaten supper and then Tony and Peter had disappeared into the lab for a few hours before joining Pepper for a movie before bed. The kid had passed out halfway through and had barely protested when Tony had woken him up and sent him off to bed. He was exhausted and Tony could see it.

He had gone to bed at a decent time and as his eyes open slowly he can’t figure out whatwoke him up. Pepper is curled into his side breathing softly and it is still dark out.

“ _Boss.”_

_And there it is_ He thought to himself, “Better be damn important FRI, what time is it?”

_“It is 3:30am and Mr.Parker appears to be in severe distress.”_

That jolts Tony awake completely and into a sitting position that jostles Pepper enough to wake her up too.

“Tony what the hell?” She mutters sleepily, “Are you okay?”

“Not me, Peter.” Tony replies as he rolls out of bed and yanks on a pair of sweatpants and a shirt, not pausing to grab underwear or anything else.

“What about Peter?” Pepper asks, her own voice more awake and alarmed.

_“It appears that Mr.Parker is experiencing a nightmare, Boss has asked to be alerted to these occurrences.” F.R.I.D.A.Y_ supplies.

“I might be awhile.” Tony calls over his shoulder as he lets himself out of the bedroom and bolts down the hall.

He feels panic rising in his chest as he gets closer to the kids room and by the time he reaches the door he has to pause to take a deep breath to ground himself. He knocks lightly and then rolls his eyes at himself ’ _no time for politeness’._

He lets himself into the bedroom and winces when he sees the kid thrashing on the bed. He opens his mouth to try and wake him up when the kid bolts up in bed with a loud gasp, his eyes immediately fly to Tony’s wide with fear and panic.

“You’re safe.” Tony assures him immediately, “You’re upstate at the compound with Pepper, Rhodey and I.” He keeps his voice low and his tone gentle but he can tell it’s doing nothing for the kid who’s still looking around the room so quickly Tony is worried he’s going to hurt his neck.

He slowly walks over to the bed, forcing his body to be as relaxed and non-threatening as possible.

“Underoos.” He says again.

Peter’s eyes fly to his face and he takes in a shuttering breath that makes Tony’s heart crack. He swallows around the lump in his throat and takes a seat at the edge of the bed.

“I need you to take a deep breath okay?”

Peter shakes his head as his breathing picks up again, “You’re not here.”

Tony’s not sure what’s going through the kids mind but the unmasked terror on his face is enough to make him panic. He does the only thing he can think of and reaches forward and places his hand on the side of the kids neck, his thumb resting on Peter’s check.

“I’m right here, look you can feel my hand on your face.” He gives a gentle squeeze and rubs his thumb over Peter’s cheek, “Right here, I’ve got you kiddo.”

He’s not sure if it’s his words or the touch that finally brings Peter out of whatever nightmare he’s been trapped in but the kid falls forward with a loud gasp. His head lands in the space between Tony’s neck and shoulder and Tony hesitates for a moment before wrapping one arm around the kid. He doesn’t know what to do with the other hand so he settles for placing it on the back of the kids head.

He feels a rush of panic as Peter takes in a shuddering breath that ends in a sob against Tony’s shoulder. He doesn’t know how to do this, this isn’t boss/employee territory. This is verging on parental territory, he doesn’t know how to handle this. He’s normally the one having a meltdown, he’s not equipped to deal with someone else - someone so innocent and fragile - depending on him to fix the situation. His scattered mind fixates on the fact that he’s normally the person who’s having a meltdown _how does it stop_? He silently asks himself, Pepper sometimes plays with his hair, yeah that normally helps, maybe the kid will like that.

He carefully starts to massage the kids head with the hand that had been buried there. It takes a couple of minutes but eventually Peter’s breathing starts to even out and his shoulders start to relax.

“How’re you doing, Kid?” Tony asks gently.

“I’m sorry-“

“Not what I asked.” Tony cuts in softly, “You have nothing to be sorry about, nightmares are normal.”

The assurances are rolling off his tongue without any conscious effort, these are the words he wished his father had said to him when he’d woken up upset instead of telling him that Stark men are made of Iron and he needed man up.

“I’ve got you, okay?” Tony adds, “you have nothing to be sorry about so I’m going to ask you again, how’re you doing?”

“Okay.”

_Well at least he didn’t say fine_ Tony thinks to himself as the kid pulls back from his embrace.

“I really am sorry I woke you up.” Peter says again.

“You didn’t.” Tony replies easily, “I was down in the lab, came up to grab something and I thought I heard something.”

Bold faced lie but the kid seems to believe it for the time being.

“Do you think you can fall back to sleep or do you want to get up for a bit?”

It’s probably the most responsible thing he could offer but he knows what it’s like to wake up from a nightmare.

“I’ll be okay.” Peter replies.

Tony narrows his eyes at him, “Are you just saying that or are you actually going to be okay?”

“I’ll be fine.”

“Why don’t I stay for a few minutes?” Tony suggests gently.

The kid immediately relaxes at the idea and Tony doesn’t give him a chance to protest. There’s no chair close to the bed, only the desk chair on the other side of the room so he gestures for the kid to slide over on the bed. Peter gives him a questioning look and slides over. Tony sits with his back against the headboard and motions for Peter to lay down.

The kid does as he’s asked and slowly lays down. Tony doesn’t miss the way he curls himself into a ball. He’s so far out of his league here. He reaches over and gently places a hand on the kids head again before starting to work on detangling his curls.

“Do you want to talk about it?” He offers softly.

“Not really.” Peter mutters.

If it weren’t almost four in the morning Tony would push it, would try to make the kid cope with this in a healthy way but right now he lets it slide. He has a feeling its not going to be an easy conversation and he has no desire to be having it at night when the kid should be getting some sleep.

“Okay.” Tony replies quietly.

He sits quietly until the Peter’s breathing evens out completely. He stares at Peter’s sleeping form for another minute after he’s sure the kid is asleep before getting up to head back to his own room.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Co-Parenting galore!

Despite this being her second time visiting the Avenger’s Compound upstate May is still surprised by the size and grandeur of the whole thing.She parks her car out front and tries not to think about how shabby it looks in comparison to everything around her.

Happy is waiting for her at the entrance to the compound and she offers him a smile and a wave as she walks up.

“You’re here just in time.” He says, his grumpy expression is belied by the slight hint of amusement in his voice.

She raises her eyebrow at him as he turns back into the compound. She understands exactly what he meant when they make it to the entrance of the living area.

“Honest to God Peter! Stop it!”

“Why?” Peter replies petulantly.

“Because I said so!”

“That’s the dumbest reason ever!”

“I will ground you!”

There’s a loud thud as they get closer to the living room.

“Ms. Potts!”

“Pep come on! The kid’s being annoying!”

They round the corner into the living room to see Peter sprawled out on the floor, Tony standing above him triumphantly with a pillow in hand and Pepper Potts, business woman extraordinair leaning against the wall, barefoot in simple jeans and a white button up and a pale pink cardigan with an indulgent smile on her face.

“No, the deal was that you could play games as long as you left me out of it.”

May looks over to the boys and sees a board game spread out on the coffee table, there are cans of Coke on the coffee table and an episode of The Simpsons playing on the TV.

“Where’s Rhodey when I need him, he always takes my side.” Tony whines, “Fine you want to cheat at Snakes and Latters? Let’s play Monopoly next, I know I’ll win at that.”

“Monopoly is a horrible game.” Peter replies, “You don’t have the attention span for Monopoly.”

“You’re not wrong about that.” Pepper supplies, “The only time he can focus is when he’s in his lab.”

“That’s not true!” Tony argued, “I pay attention to other things!”

“Twelve percent of the time.” Pepper deadpans.

“That was four years ago and I apologized!” Tony replies petulantly.

Pepper waves him off and looks up and is the first to notice that May is in the room.

“Mrs. Parker.” She greets with a wide smile, “Welcome!”

Tony and Peter both turn around with guilty looks on their faces.

“How long have you been standing there?” Tony asks immediately.

“Hi Tony, how are you?” May replies patiently.

“Hi May, I’m good.” Tony replies obediently, “How long have you been standing there?”

“Long enough.” May replies with a shrug, “Hi, Baby.”

Peter is pushing himself up off the ground with a mild glare at Tony, “Hi, May, Mr.Stark is cheating at Snakes an Ladders.”

“I am not!” Tony replies indignantly, “That’s it! We’re done playing games.” He throws up his hands in defeat and sighs dramatically, “Honestly, you try to do something nice and it never works.”

“Can I get you something to drink, Mrs. Parker?” Pepper offers, “Let’s go grab a glass of wine while the children bicker.”

“We were going to show her the lab.” Tony protests.

Pepper roles her eyes at her fiancé, “You can show her the lab after, Peter honey do you want a granola bar?”

Peter perks up at the offer of food and May barely contains a grin.

“Yes please Ms. Potts.” He brushes his curls out of his eyes, “Are there any more raspberry ones left?”

Pepper smiles fondly, “I bought a box yesterday just for you they’re in the normal spot, lunch in an hour, don’t eat too many!”

Peter’s already digging around in the cupboard when Pepper throws the last sentence over her shoulder.

“Don’t think I don’t recognize that distraction for what it is.” Tony states, “You can’t win him over with food.”

“I’m not winning him over, I don’t have to.” Pepper replies with a grin, “Come on Mrs. Parker let’s grab that drink, we have wine, juice, pop pretty much everything.”

May watches the entire interaction with a small smirk, she hadn’t quite expected this level of familiarity and easiness between her nephew and the two adults in front of her. She see’s Pepper nod towards the kitchen and follows her lead, she takes a seat at the counter when Pepper gestures to the chair and watches Peter bound back into the living room chattering a mile a minute.

“I hope he doesn’t talk your ear off.” May says sympathetically.

She loves he nephew’s chatter, the apartment is too quiet without it when he’s at school, out with friends, on patrol or with Tony but she also knows it can be a bit overwhelming to someone who’s not used to it. His exuberance is one of the things that makes him him, she knows he has his dark days, that happiness is not a constant in his life but she loves his good days, the days when everything is thrilling and he’s a ball of excited energy.

“Oh not at all.” Pepper replies easily, “He was so quiet his first weekend but as he’s gotten a bit more chatty as he’s gotten more comfortable.”

She pours them each a glass of wine and hands one over to Pepper.

“He seems really at home here.” May comments quietly.

She’s happy Peter is comfortable, she’s incredibly grateful that she doesn’t need to worry about him as much as she used to while she’s working longer shifts but at the same time it’s a bit hard to see her nephew that comfortable with someone else, someone who can give him more than May ever could. She tries to push that thought aside, she wants the world for her nephew and if Tony Stark is willing to help him she’s willing to let him to a certain extent. She just hadn’t counted on Pepper Potts, the petty side of her is afraid that the strong confident woman in front of her is going to replace her in some way.

“We trying our best to make him comfortable.” Pepper replies, “He’s… He’s really good for Tony.”

May looks at her questioningly.

“He wasn’t in a great place after everything fell apart with the other Avengers, it took him awhile to get back on his feet but I haven’t seen him this happy, this at peace… Ever actually.” Pepper says softly.

“I have to admit that I was a bit hesitant to let Peter spend time with Tony.” May admits, “I remember Tony from twenty years ago… My nephew has loved Tony as long as I can remember, before Iron Man even, Tony made science cool but my husband and I saw past that, saw the scandals, the drinking, the drugs.” She shrugs sheepishly, “I almost didn’t let him keep coming back but Tony made a few good points and so far he’s kept up his end of the bargain and Peter seems happy.” 

“I’ve been in Tony’s life for a long time… I was around for a lot of the drugs and the drinking, the women.” Pepper chuckles softly, “God the women, he was a different person when he was doing that but the one thing that never changed was that he was fiercely loyal to the people he loved, Happy, Jim and I we were his family… Whether he’s ready to admit it to himself or not he loves your nephew, possibly more than anything or anyone else in the world and because of that he will do anything to keep him safe.”

“You think he cares about him?”

If May’s honest with herself Tony genuinely caring about Peter beyond feeling responsible for his safety as Spider-Man had never really entered her mind.

“I think he loves him.” Pepper replies seriously, “I know that no matter what kind of mood he’s in during the day he’s his happiest on Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights, I know he lives for every other weekend. I know that he flies back and forth from DC at least three times a week to make sure he’s home for his nights with Peter and I know that on Thursdays before his weekends he makes sure F.R.I.D.A.Y orders all of Peter’s favourite foods and I know that he keeps a list of Peter’s favourite things.” Pepper pauses to take a sip of her wine, “And I know that he’s proud, so proud of your nephew.”

Pepper glances behind her to the fridge and May follows her gaze and sees what looks like a test paper attached to the fridge by an abnormally large magnet.

“Act surprised when he tells you.” Pepper says with a grin, “But Peter got one hundred percent on his Chemistry test yesterday, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen Tony that excited.”

May widens her eyes as a grin spreads over her face, “That’s amazing!”

She knows Peter is smart, has seen it herself for years but no matter how much she knows that fact it never ceases to make her swell with pride. She glances over her shoulder to see that Tony and Peter have disappeared from the living room.

“They probably went to the lab.” Pepper says when she sees May looking.

“Do they spend a lot of time in there?”

“Not as much as I thought they would actually.” Pepper replies, “Tony can go up to sixty hours in there but when Peter’s here they’re there for four hours at a time maximum, every once in awhile they’ll get caught up in something but he’s been really good about making sure Peter is eating regular meals and he’s been really firm about bedtime.”

May laughs softly, “I still can’t believe he gave him a bedtime.”

“Yeah, he’s had a bit of a hard time figuring out the difference between a fifteen year old and a five year old. Not that he knows how to handle either.”

May laughs again and takes a sip of her wine, “Yeah I know that feeling, Ben and I never wanted kids, we loved Peter more than anything in the world and we were more than happy to take him but we weren’t prepared for it at all, I’m still winging it everyday.”

As much as she wishes Mary and Richard were still around, that Peter could’ve been spared that pain she wouldn’t change anything for the world. She loves her nephew more than anything, he may not be related to her in anyway but for all intents and purposes he’s her son, her goofy, crazy chatty, insanely intelligent son.

“I know you took a risk with this.” Pepper says, her voice growing serious, “But I really do want to thank you for trusting Tony with Peter, for trusting me too.” She looks over at the fridge and smiles softly, “He’s a great kid and he’s made this place more of home than it’s ever been… We want you to know, _I_ want you to know that we’re not going to try to be anything more than we are. Tony wants to mentor Peter and I wholeheartedly support him but Peter will always be your kid and we won’t overstep… I just can’t imagine it’s easy trusting him with total strangers, total strangers who don’t necessarily have the most kid friendly reputations.”

“I didn’t stop worrying the entire first weekend.” May admits, “I didn’t trust Tony but I figured this was the only way to keep Peter off the streets when I wasn’t home. To be completely honest I still worry but seeing him today… Seeing him with both of you I think I’ll worry a lot less now, at least while he’s here.” She laughs softly, “I don’t think I’ll ever stop worrying, not with this whole superhero thing.”

“Welcome to the club.” Pepper replies with a small smirk, “Rhodey, Happy and I have started a club for the spouses and immediate family members of superheroes.”

“I’m glad I’ll be in good company.”

“Good company for what?”

May turns around to see a man in a full Army uniform, she recognizes him from press conferences over the years but he looked older, slightly more tired than the last time she had seen him on TV.

“Oh nothing.” Pepper replied, waving him off, “I was just telling Mrs. Parker about all of the insanity you and Tony used to get up to.”

“You’re Peter’s Aunt.” Rhodey holds out his hands, “James Rhodes, call me Rhodey though, everyone else does. It’s nice to meet you Mrs. Parker, your nephew is a great kid.”

“Thank you.” May replies with a wide smile, “And just May.” She turns to Pepper, “You too please, we practically share a kid I think that puts us on a first name basis.”

Pepper laughs and nods, “Sounds good to me, are you heading out Jim?”

“Yeah, I got called back to DC, I probably won’t be back until next weekend.” Rhodey replies, “I’ve got about twenty minutes before I need to go though,” He nods to the stool beside May, “Is it alright if I join you ladies.”

May and Pepper both nod and they fall into easy conversation with Rhodey. May is finishing her glass of wine when Peter bounds back into the kitchen with Tony close on his heels, Peter is chattering a million miles a minute and Tony is listening patiently while adding input when necessary. May is surprised when Tony makes a beeline for Rhodey, she never expected the infamous playboy, known for his womanizing in the years pre-Pepper, to wrap his arms easily around the other man from behind and rest his chin on Rhodey’s shoulder like it’s the most natural thing in the world.

“Why’re you in uniform?” Tony asks quietly.

“Called back to DC.” Rhodey replies, “Hey Pete.”

“Hi Mr. Colonel Rhodes Sir.”

“Just Rhodey, Kid.”

“Okay Mr. Rhodey.”

Tony chuckles softly and leans up to kiss Rhodey’s cheek, “Keep trying, HoneyBear. When are you going to be home again?”

“Next weekend maybe.” Rhodey replies, “But I’ll see you Tuesday morning.”

Pepper rolls her eyes but smiles fondly at the scene in front of her, “Tony, why the spider monkey routine?”

Tony looks up and gives her a _duh_ look, “I’m teaching the kid about toxic masculinity, what’s the rule kid?”

“We should always tell our friends we love them regardless of gender.” Peter intones as if he’s repeating something Tony’s told him verbatim, “Guys are allowed to give their guy friends hugs and kisses unless their friends are uncomfortable with it, then we need to respect boundaries. No means no.”

May can see Pepper fighting to hold back a laugh and May herself is looking between the three men with a raised eyebrow but Rhodey looks as if this is nothing out of the ordinary, even with Tony still hanging off of him.

“So glad I could be a part of your object lesson for this week.” Rhodey deadpans, “But I need to head out so you need to detach.”

Tony takes a step back and Rhodey slowly stands up, his movements are slightly stiff but May doesn’t have a chance to wonder about it before Rhodey is giving Pepper a quick kiss on the cheek and ruffling Peter’s hair.

“Alright I’ll see you all next week, it was nice meeting you May.”

“It was nice meeting you too.”

Tony makes an indignant noise and holds out his arms while giving Rhodey a pointed look. Rhodey rolls his eyes but walks into Tony’s arms. May hears Tony mutter something that sounds like ‘be safe’ before Tony pulls back enough to plant another kiss on Rhodey’s cheek.

“Love you.”

“Love you too.” Tony replies, “Call when you get in.”

“Will do.” Rhodey promises.

****

They eat lunch shortly after Rhodey leaves, joined by Happy - who sits next May, not that it matters to her - and a man -maybe?- with deep read skin and a gentle British accent.

As soon as they’re done with their food Tony and Peter both insist that May come down to the lab. She follows them down and raises an eyebrow when a robot with a single arm and claw rolls over and immediately attaches itself onto Peter with a chirp.

“DUM-E no, leave Pete alone.” Tony chastises.

Peter runs a hand over the robots arm and smiles, “We’ll play after.”

The robot chirps -she’s not sure it’s possible but the chirp sounds happy - and turns to May before opening and closing it’s claw.

“That’s May.” Peter says as if the robot understands him, “May this is DUM-E, Mr. Stark built him.”

May waves to the robot, unsure of what else to do before Tony makes a shooing gesture.

“Go back to your charging station or I’ll sell you for parts, you can play with Peter later.”

Even May can tell the threat is an empty one judging by the fond tone of Tony’s voice.

“‘Kay, Kid you brought her down here, show her your bot.”

Peter grabs May’s hand and pulls her over to a workstation in the corner, there’s a small robot standing on the desk. Unlike DUM-E this robot actually has a body, arms and legs and Peter presses a few button then quirks an eyebrow and frowns.

“He was working fine this morning.” He says in dismay.

“Okay.” Tony says gently, “Go through the list, start at the top and work your way down, what could be wrong with it?”

May steps back and watches as Tony patiently walks Peter through fixing the robot, never outright telling him what to do and never raising his voice above a soft murmur. She smiles when Peter lights up as the robot starts moving. Tony grins and May could swear she sees pride in the grin on his face, the pride is a little bit more obvious when Tony claps Peter on the shoulder.

“Good job, Kid.”

May watches the robot run through a string of commands and makes sure to tell Peter how impressive she thinks it is.

“It’s still pretty basic.” Peter replies humbly.

“It’s more impressive than some of the stuff I see from my college interns.” Tony states firmly.

Peter blushes an impressive shade of red and looks down at the ground but May can see a grin on his face at the praise.

“You’re doing great, baby.” May says, she steps forward and pulls Peter into a tight hug, “I’m so proud of you.”

Peter hugs her back for a second and then squirms until she lets go, no doubt embarrassed by her mothering.

“Why don’t you go make sure you have all of your stuff packed.” May suggests lightly.

Peter nods and shuts down his robot before bounding out of the lab. May turns to Tony and grins when she sees him rubbing the back of his neck and watching her wearily.

“Am I in trouble?”

May chuckles, “No, the opposite actually.”

“I don’t know if I like that any better.”

May shakes her head and rolls her eyes with a _what am I going to do with you_ expression on her face.

“I talked to Pepper-“

“That never bodes well for me.”

“Tony, shut up for two minutes while I talk.” She watches Tony run his finger and his thumb over his lips as if to say _okay, lips are zipped_ , before she continues, “ _Anyway_ I talked with Pepper and I’ll tell you what I told her, I was nervous about leaving him with you, your reputation didn’t do wonders in reassuring me that you were fit to take care of a child.” She raises her finger when he opens his mouth, “But so far you’ve proved me wrong, my nephew has had nothing but good things to say about you, something I took with a grain of salt because I don’t think he’s capable of saying anything bad about anyone. I came here today not expecting much, I thought I’d see you two working in the lab, maybe chatting, having a slightly awkward meal before going home. I did not expect to see my nephew looking as at home as he does, I did not expect to hear him laughing in a way that I haven’t heard since my husband died. I didn’t expect to see his test displayed proudly on the fridge and I did not expect to see you being as patient and as kind as you have been.” She pauses for a moment and studies Tony who looks decidedly uncomfortable now, “I did not expect you to care about my kid beyond the confines of Spider-Man, I figured you wanted him for that and that alone and I owe you an apology for that.”

“I tried to keep it professional.” Tony admits quietly, “I’m still trying but God that kid makes it hard, he just looks at you with those puppy dog eyes and I just want to wrap him in a blanket and shove him in a closet where the world can’t get to him.” She can tell by the look on his face that he hadn’t meant to say all of that, “I uh, I don’t say sorry a lot, not outright anyway but I am sorry for crossing that line, I wasn’t trying to be more than I am to him.”

“That’s not at all what I was trying to say.” May corrects quickly, “I’ve been doing this alone for awhile now but Peter and I were doing okay on our own and I was hesitant to let someone else in, especially someone who has a bit of a reputation for being, let’s say erratic. I was terrified you were going to change your mind and push my nephew away or worse let him get attached and then push him away. So far those fears were pointless, you have gone above and beyond what I’ve expected. You’ve kept every promise you’ve made. You haven’t missed a night or weekend with Peter without a good amount of advanced notice and even then I know you feel bad about it - you don’t have to by the way, we both understand you’re busy - you have fed him, kept him safe and made him feel welcome in your home. I didn’t even think before calling you yesterday, I just knew that we could use the overtime pay and then I realized I had no one to watch Peter. It didn’t used to be a big deal, he could stay alone and our neighbour would check up on him or he’d go to Ned’s but now with the Spider-Man thing I don’t want to risk him going out on patrol without me around in case something happens so I called you, I didn’t think about it I just picked up the phone. You had every right to say no, it wasn’t your weekend and it was an inconvenience but you didn’t even hesitate.”

“I didn’t see him all week.” Tony says with a small shrug, “I figured it was only fair to take him for the night, give you a hand.”

May smiles softly, “That’s the thing though, Tony, and you probably won’t see this but being a single, working parent, to a vigilante superhero no less, is hard and it’s hard when you have no one else in your corner.” She gives him a pointed look to make sure he’s listening, “So to know that I called you drop of a hat out of nowhere and you just went with it without hesitation was a huge weight off of my shoulders. It’s not about fair, you have no obligation to me to do that, you have no obligation to Peter to do that. I am grateful you’ve kept up your end of our prearranged deal but you have no obligation to do that either, you could walk away and there would be no repercussions for you. Seeing him today with you and Pepper and Rhodey and Happy, it made me feel like I have people in my corner again and maybe it’s not fair to expect that of all of you but it was a good feeling.”

“We’re in your corner.” Tony replies quietly, “All of us. Happy wouldn’t admit it out loud but he adores that kid. Pepper is so in love with him I’m sure she’d use me as a human shield if it came down to protecting him and Rhodey tries to play it cool but he takes every opportunity he can to do stuff with the kid, honest to god I caught them watching SpongeBob together the other day.”

“And you?” May asks.

Tony looks at the ceiling and opens and closes his mouth a few times, “He’s a good kid.” He finally says, “And that scares the hell out of me because I’m not a good guy, May.”

“I think you’re a better person than anybody realizes.” May replies, “That being said my kid is attached now and he’s lost a lot of people in his life… I know I said you could walk away and there would be no repercussions to yourself but I don’t want to see him go through that again… You’ve proven yourself time and time again but I just… My nephew is a child still, whether he believes it or not and I just don’t want you to get bored or decide he’s too much six months down the line.”

“I’m not going anywhere.” Tony replies, “I thought for a long time that he would be better off if I kept my distance, then he proved me horrendously wrong on that. I tried to keep things strictly professional between us but he makes that so damn hard.” He pauses when May laughs and nods her agreement, “He scares the hell out of me because I know I’m going to fuck this up, I don’t know what I’m doing and I don’t know how to be what he needs but I’m also a selfish bastard and-“ He rubs the back of his neck sheepishly before shoving his hands in his pockets, “He’s not the only one who got attached.”

“Yeah, it’s like a magic trick he has.” May agrees, “I was telling Pepper that Ben and I never planned on kids, we liked just being us and having that freedom but Peter was probably the best thing that ever happened to us in the most horrible way possible. He may not be related to me by blood but that kid is my son in every way that is important and I am fiercely protective of him.”

“I’m aware.” Tony cuts in with a small smirk, “I remember being screamed at.”

“Hurt my son and that’ll look like a walk in the park.” May replies, “I know you say that you’re going to fuck this up and that you don’t know what you’re doing but no one does, just do the best you can and please… Please, Tony, don’t walk away, everybody makes mistakes it’s like a right of passage but if you walk away I won’t give you a second chance.”

“I don’t have a lot of family, May.” Tony replies, “But Peter is apart of it now, you too, and I don’t walk away from family.”

Based on his serious tone and everything Pepper has told her about Tony that’s enough for her. She still doesn’t trust him one hundred percent but she’s getting there and he’s proved himself enough that she’s willing to take his word on it.

“Okay.” She replies, “I believe you… And thank you, Tony, for being in my corner.”

“Call me anytime.” Tony replies, “whether you need someone to keep an eye on him, if there’s an emergency or if you just need to vent.” He shrugs, “I don’t have a lot of experience but I can listen.”

May considers him for a moment before holding out a hand and beckoning him forward.

“You’re doing a good job.” She whispers as she pulls him into a tight hug.

****

Pepper is almost expecting it when Tony crawls into bed that night and throws and arm over her waist. She puts down the book she’s reading and glances down at him with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes dear?”

He looks up at her with hopeful brown eyes and nudges her stomach with his nose before speaking.

“I want to move back to the city.”

She runs her fingers through his hair and hums her agreement.

“I’ll start the process tomorrow.” She promises, “When do you want to be back by?”

“Thanksgiving?” He says hopefully, “I thought maybe we could do dinner with the kid and May, invite Happy, Rhodey and Vis up too… You know the whole shebang.”

She looks down at him and raises and eyebrow in amusement, “Good old family Thanksgiving?”

“Is that crazy?”

She can hear the slight hesitation in his voice and knows that he’s about two seconds from letting his insecurity take over and cancelling the whole thing before it’s even started.

“Not crazy.” She replies slowly, “Nice.”

They sit in silence for a few minutes before she speaks again.

“Does this move have anything to do with May’s visit today?”

Tony shakes his head against her stomach where he’s still happily burrowing, “No… I just think it’ll be nicer to be close by, it’s a pain in the ass carting the kid back and forth.”

“Sure it is.” Pepper replies indulgently, “I’m guessing you’ll want to do some renovations before we move back?”

“Maybe.” Tony replies, his voice taking on an edge of sleepiness, “Wanna redo the gym, make it something that’ll actually challenge the kid. We may as well leave the Avenger’s floor alone in case Rhodey or Vision want to come stay in the city, I was thinking about the penthouse though.”

“What about it?”

“Maybe we could redo it… Make it a bit homier?” He shifts again and almost purrs when Pepper starts to gently massage his scalp, “I’m not saying we go all cheap or grungy or anything, maybe just something a little more… I don’t know, comfortable?”

“I’ll talk to the designers tomorrow.”

She likes sleek and modern designs but she understands what Tony means, the compound leaves something to be desired personality wise and the penthouse although gorgeous and the peak of modern luxury isn’t exactly as warm as it could be. She knows Tony does his best to make the compound feel like a home but at the base of it it’s still a _compound_ designed for community living and not tailored to anyone’s taste. Tony had grown up in soulless houses, designed to impress other people and had carried that with him into adulthood. Pepper has a good idea of what he’s asking for, he doesn’t want a showpiece, he wants a home. Somewhere he can go to unwind, somewhere for Peter to visit that doesn’t feel like a hotel. Somewhere to grow into the man he’s slowly becoming.

As Tony drifts off with his head in her lap, for once in bed early instead of at some ridiculous hour Pepper decides that maybe she’s ready for that change too.


	8. Chapter 8

He had been almost sure that the renovations to the penthouse, along with the Accords and his weekends with Peter were going to kill him. Thankfully the best construction crew money could buy and round the clock work -god bless having no neighbours-meant that the renovations to the penthouse had only taken two weeks leaving him two weeks to spare before Thanksgiving.

Now it’s a Tuesday morning and he’s standing in the newly finished living room looking around with a proud smile. Normally he let the designers, with Pepper’s input, do most of the work on his houses but this time he and Pepper had made most of the decisions themselves and the place actually had personality. Gone were the dark colours and sleek designs they normally went with in their place were light hardwood floors, white walls, cream couches with accent pillows in blankets in different shades of blues and greens. Tony had fought for red but Pepper had reminded him that blue was more relaxing and homey than red. The white walls had seemed sterile while they were painting and they had almost changed it but with the cream furniture and bright accents as well as the lush area rugs made it seem bright, airy and warm rather than blinding and sterile. The sunken living room had been filled in and in its place was a large cream sectional and a couple of huge plushy arm chairs surrounding a white brick fireplace with a tv above it, perfect for movie nights. The coffee table was made out of a medium shade of distressed wood and glass that matched the mantle on the fire place and the rug underneath was perfect to dig your toes into. The large windows overlooking Manhattan made the room even brighter.

They had debated it for a bit before closing off the space a bit more with well placed pillars to make the kitchen and dining room it’s own space. You could still see straight through the dining room and kitchen to the living room but the space was slightly more homey now that it wasn’t wide open with large amounts of empty space. The dining room table was made of the same distressed wood as the coffee table and the chairs were all simple but comfortable covered in Prussian blue fabric. White had been the most obvious choice but they had both decided that white chairs would make Peter unbelievably twitchy worrying about spilling.

The kitchen had been Tony’s baby, normally he didn’t care, the kitchen was more for show than anything in the past he and Pepper had rarely cooked but he had been adamant that the kitchen should be functional and homey. He had gotten better and better at cooking, YouTube had become his best friend over the past two months and he wanted a space where he could make dinner for Pepper, for Peter. He had a vision in his head of him cooking while Peter did his homework at the counter, Pepper would either be helping him or working on her table at the island with a glass of wine in her hand. He knew it was stupid and far too domestic and probably and impossible thing to have but it had stuck and he’d designed the kitchen around that dream. The kitchen afforded tons of counter space a huge stainless steel industrial fridge, a double oven and large gas cooktop. The white cupboards and marble counter tops gave the kitchen a modern feel while the large island, made of the same wood as the dining room table added a more homey slightly rustic feel to it.

Tony had never considered himself a ‘rustic’ man but in looking through all of the ideas for the penthouse, and an insane amount of time spent on Pinterest, he’d decided that he kind of liked it. He runs his hand over the electric mixer on the counter - he thought he might try baking, kids liked cookies, or so he’d heard - and admires the clean cut of the kitchen. The pantry just off the kitchen was a work of art, at least in Tony’s opinion, it’s floor to ceiling shelves and rolling ladder to reach the top most shelves had been another labour of love for him. Something Pepper had laughed about endlessly while he’d been designing it and programming F.R.I.D.A.Y to find the best recipes and store them on his StarkPad as well as automatically keeping track of everything in the cupboard.

They hadn’t actually stayed in the penthouse yet, the construction crew had only cleared out that morning, they had been staying between the compound and the slightly smaller loft apartment they kept for when Pepper had to stay in the city, something they were considering selling now that they were back in the tower. They had moved the majority of their clothes and personal belongings in the day before, Maria Stark’s baby grand piano had a place of honour in the living room and Tony was itching to play it. He’d had it put in storage when they had moved to the compound and had been relieved to pull it back out.

He wanders through the main living area again and pauses in front of one of the pillars in the living room. He places his hand on it and grins when the false wall opens to reveal shelves full of board games, puzzles and a few lego sets. This had been designed with a very specific reason in mind and Tony had been overjoyed when Pepper had suggested it. In his mind that had solidified the fact that his Fiancee was okay with this rather than just going along with his whims.

He pulls his phone out of his pocket and pulls up May’s contact information. They talk more than they used to, she checks in when Peter is at his place and he messages once or twice a week to make sure everything is okay.

**Tony: _Hey, do you have a spare two hours?_**

He knows she’s not working because they talked about it on Saturday but he’s not sure if she has other plans, groceries or whatever it is normal people do on their days off. He should ask her for suggestions, he’s trying to slow down a bit be a bit more _normal_. The Avengers have officially been on hold since the Accords disaster, he’s been out as Iron Man a few times and he flies the suit for pleasure when he’s out at the compound but he’s been less focused on superheroing. Most of his time is tied up between Stark Industries, Peter and training him and the Accords but they’re about two weeks away from having the Rogues pardoned, something he has mixed feelings about, and having Peter closer is going to free up a bit of time as well. He’s promised Pepper that he’ll focus less on the suits and so far he’s been able to keep that promise, he’s focused most of his attention on the kids’ suit and working on the new nano technology.

He thinks that he’s finally ready to settle into a slower lifestyle, fly a few missions here and there, work on R&D for SI and be there for Peter as much as he can. He wouldn’t admit it to anyone but he’s been seeing someone to help work on his anxiety again, the nightmares are still a constant in his life and anxiety attacks happen sometimes but he’s slowly pulling his shit together.

**Aunt Hottie: _I might, why?_**

**Tony: _Can I steal you for a bit? I want to show you something._**

**Aunt Hottie: _Where am I going?_**

**Tony: _The Tower, I can come get you._**

**Aunt Hottie: _I can drive myself, I thought you sold the tower._**

**Tony: _Didn’t take._**

**Aunt Hottie: _Pepper deserves an award, I’ll be there in an hour, I’ll text you when I get there._**

Pepper probably does deserve an award, he tells F.R.I.D.A.Y to order some flowers to be sent to her office and then to be extra thorough he spends the next hour signing the paperwork she’s been bugging him about for a week.

He’s almost through the stack of paperwork when he gets a text from May telling him she’s outside. He bolts down to the lobby, half of the tower still has office space for the new ‘SHEILD’ (or whatever they’re calling it now) in it so there are people and security guards milling around. A few heads turn at his presence but most people ignore him as he fetches May.

“I still don’t understand what we’re doing.” She says as the elevator brings them up to the penthouse.

“I want to show you something.” Tony replies, he’s bouncing on the heels of his feet trying to contain his excitement as the elevator opens into the living room.

“What happened in here?” May asks looking around in awe and confusion.

“Pepper and I remodelled.”

“You live at the compound.” May reminds him dryly.

“We decided it might be a good move for us to move back to the city.” Tony replies, watching May closely for a reaction, “Not the Avengers, just Pep and I, closer to work for her.”

“Pepper works all over the world, there is no _closer_.” May retorts, “and I’ve seen the compound and pictures of your old penthouse, this is not your style.”

Tony shrugs, “I let my decorators design most of the compound and the penthouse, Pepper and I did most of this ourselves… We wanted something homier.”

“And closer.” May adds.

“Yeah.” Tony replies, “And this way I’m close by in case Peter needs something on patrol or you pick up extra shifts, we’ll still go to the compound to train every once in awhile but I have gyms and labs here so we can do weekends here.”

May pauses in her glancing around the room and turns to Tony with her arms crossed, “Did you move back to the city just for Peter?”

He can tell that he should choose his words wisely, he and May had been at odds a few times about money and what he should and shouldn’t be doing for Peter and he had respected that. (Offering to hire her on to his med team hadn’t been his best decision)

“Not _just_ for Peter.” He says slowly, “But it was a big part of the reason.”

“ _Tony.”_ May says warningly.

“It’s a safety thing, he can’t go to a hospital if something happens, not with his DNA.” He reminds her, “I’ve got medbay set up here and I’m going to have doctors on call just in case, and like I said this way I’ll be close by if either of you need something.”

“Tony, it’s not that I don’t appreciate it-“

“I needed to get out of the compound.” He finally admits, “Yes this was for Peter, ninety percent of it was for Peter, two percent was for Pepper being close to work, you’re right she’s all over the place this only helps about a quarter of the time at most. It’s not public knowledge and I haven’t told Peter yet so I’d like you to keep it to yourself but we’re about two weeks away from the Rogue Avengers being pardoned and I’m going to offer them their rooms back at the compound.” He gives her a moment to process that.

“You’re doing what?” She asks in disbelief, “After everything that-“

“There was a lot going on that the public didn’t know about, neither side was completely right, we should’ve made more of an effort to talk.” Tony interrupts, “I made them a promise that they would always have a home at the compound and I intend to keep it but I made a promise to you too and I won’t let Peter be around them, not right now.”

“So you decided to give up millions of dollars instead of selling this place?”

Tony shrugs and carefully keeps the exact amount of money he’s giving up to himself, “Money doesn’t mean a lot to me, but I told you that I wouldn’t walk away from Peter and I’m keeping my word. I want to be closer, I hate knowing that if something were to happen and I was out at the compound there’s a good chance I wouldn’t be able to make it in time to help, here I can make it to Queens in five minutes with a suit.” It was something that kept him up at night, dreading the call from Karen knowing that he would never make it in time if the kid was in serious and immediate danger.

“Why the remodel?” May asks, looking around the living room again.

“Pepper and I agreed that it’s time for me to slow down a bit, I wanted something that was homier and Pepper agreed… We wanted it to be a place where Peter felt comfortable and at home, I wanted somewhere that felt like a house, not a museum.” He shrugs and puts his hands in his pockets, “I never had that growing up, everything was always fancy and grand and then as an adult everything was always modern and sleek. I like that we have couches that are actually comfortable to watch a movie on, a dining room table that isn’t huge but can fit our family, I like that our kitchen has an island where Peter can do his homework while I cook supper and Pepper can just relax. I like that it’s close to you and Pete.” He admits, “But I really like that it feels like home, not just a place to stay.”

May’s face has softened as he spoke and he knew he’d said something right.

“I had a lot of reasons for doing this but more than anything else I’m doing it because it’s time.” He reaches up and tugs at the collar of his t-shirt, “It’s time for me to start slowing down a bit and being away from the compound will help that… Being reminded of _why_ I need to slow down will help that.”

May sighs heavily and nods, “Okay, alright.” A small grin spreads over her face as she shakes her head again, “You’re crazy, Stark.”

“Oh, absolutely certifiably insane, no doubt about it.” He agrees, “Come look at my kitchen, it’s my baby.”

May laughs and follows him on a tour of the main area.

“I’m learning how to bake, kids like cookies right?”

“Your best bet is double chocolate.” May said knowingly, “He won’t eat them when I make them but when I buy them he loves them.”

Tony bites his lip and raises his eyebrow until May bursts out laughing.

“Yeah, okay I get it my baking sucks.”

“I never said that.”

“You didn’t have to, your face said it all.” May replied, “Now are you giving me a tour or making fun of my cooking?”

“Tour, come on follow me.”

He leads May down a hallway and pauses outside the first door but doesn’t open it. “Bathroom, nothing worth seeing, door across the hall is Pep’s office.” He opens the door and lets her glance in, Pepper has it done up nice but it’s still just an office. “This is Pete’s room.”

He opens the door and steps in and out of the way so May can follow him in. Peter’s room had been a labour of love between he and Pepper, it was the one room they had done completely by themselves, from painting to building the furniture. His room at the compound was nice but it was generic and Peter had never really customized it, not like the other Avengers had, Tony’s not sure if it’s because he only spent an average of four days a month there or because he felt uncomfortable decorating. His room in the tower though was more customized.

Tony had taken everything he’d learned about Peter and poured it back into the room. The colour scheme was the same as the one at the compound but the furniture was all light gray wood, the bed was kingsized, there was a large desk and a bookshelf Tony had filled with books, Harry Potter, Comic Books, science journals and a few other series’ Peter had mentioned. There’s framed posters on the walls, Star Wars, Brooklyn Nine-Nine an Iron Man poster that was purely self indulgent on his part and a Spider-Man poster he’d had specially made that he’s sure will just thrill the kid.

“Tony this is…”

“Don’t say it’s too much.” Tony says, “I know it’s a lot but I want him to feel at home here I picked out everything that he likes, Pepper and I painted everything ourselves, we even built the furniture ourselves… I wanted to make sure everything was safe for him, I stayed up all night working on it.” He knows his voice is starting to sound desperate and he’s trying to reign it in but the idea that May might decide that he’s overstepped or crossed a line and decide to keep Peter away is making it really hard to catch his breath. “It’s just, I want to do this for him, please, May… Let me do this.” He wrings his hands together, “I know I promised not to spend a lot of money, I promised I wouldn’t spoil him and maybe this is a bit much and I know this isn’t his home and I won’t push that but-“

May holds up a hand to stop his rambling, she takes a deep breath before speaking. “I was serious about not spoiling him and maybe under any other circumstance this would be too much but he’s going to be here enough… This will be his home too and the fact that you’re willing to do this, willing to go to this much trouble to make sure he feels at home here means… It means a lot to me and it’s going to mean the world to him.”

“He’ll always have a home here, May.” Tony promises, “Pepper and I want him to feel welcome, he can come any time, day or night he’ll have complete access to the tower and so do you. Actually that leads me to the next part of our tour.”

He nods towards the hallway and leads May to the door next to Peter’s room. He opens it an allows May to step in first. The room is generic, blue-gray walls and white furniture and bedding with blue and orange accents.

“Pep and I thought maybe it would be a good idea to have a room for you, just in case you want to spend the night every once in awhile.” He shifted slightly as May looked at him in disbelief, “We have guest floors but I thought you’d probably like to be close to Pete, and the bedroom was already here so it’s not like we went to any extra trouble.” He assures her, “and I know you live right across town but if you and Pep have a girls night or god forbid Pete needs to spend the night in medbay you have somewhere comfortable to stay, you can leave a change of clothes or something.”

“You’ve thought of everything haven’t you?”

“I have.” He agrees and then smiles smugly, “But that being said, Happy has an apartment in the tower too so you could always spend the night there if you wanted-“

The pillow hits him in the face before he can finish the sentence and if looks could kill Tony would be dead on the floor in that moment.

“Me thinks thou doth protest too much.”

“Shut up, Stark.”

“Does that mean there’s something to shut up about?” Tony asks, wiggling his eyebrows, “Are you and Happy doing the horizontal tango.”

“Jesus you’re a child.” May mutters as she walks past him, “Keep your wild musings to yourself please.” She adds turning around to face him, “I haven’t dated since Ben passed away and I want to make sure Peter’s okay with it before I do anything.”

“I would never say anything to the kid.” Tony promises, “Happy, maybe, the kid, never.”

“Thank you.” May replies.

“So again, that being said is there something to tell?” Tony asked gleefully.

“I am not gossiping with you Anthony Stark, I have to go home and make my kid dinner or he’ll starve to death.”

“He might starve to death anyway.” Tony replies.

“I’m never coming over again!” May calls over her shoulder as she makes her way down the hall.

“You love me!” Tony calls back.

“I hate you slightly more than I did last week!”

When Tony gets a plain manila envelope in the mail two days later with May’s name in the return address he opens it with a slight edge of fear -the woman is fucking terrifying- overlaid with curiosity. It’s three pieces of construction paper with a sticky note on top.

_For your fridge, the test looked lonely._

_~May_

He flips over the pages and has to bite his lip as he stares down at a crude drawing of the second Iron Man suit, the one that had been shown to the public. At the bottom of the page Peter’s name is scrolled in blocky lettering suited to a child and in much neater writing is _Age 7._ The next page is another drawing of Iron Man, this time with _Age 9_ in the bottom corner. The last one is his favourite though, just a sketch of Tony, there’s a stage and it looks like he’s giving a presentation of some sort, _Age 12_ is in the corner this time and the way Peter’s written his name is more similar to the writing Tony recognizes from formulas and suit plans down in the lab. None of the drawings are great, mostly just sketches, they would leave a lot left to be desired in the art world but staring at them Tony decides they’re the best pieces of art he’s ever seen.

He feels a bit stupid as he makes a beeline for the kitchen. There front and centre on the fridge is Peter’s Chemistry test, held up with a Spider-Man magnet.

_“You know what I like_.”

When the package had arrived containing a multitude of Spider-Man and Iron Man magnets Tony had laughed and then realized exactly why F.R.I.D.A.Y had ordered, and probably had to have the Spider-Man ones custom made, and he’d had a moment of quiet panic but had managed to sooth it with Pepper cooing over how cute the stupid things were.

He grabs two more magnets and hangs up the two Iron Man pictures, he saves the other one, he thinks maybe he’ll frame it and put it in his room.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have absolutely nothing to say for myself....

When May and Peter step off the elevator in the penthouse on Thanksgiving day it’s to absolute chaos. May had been hesitant to accept Tony’s invitation, she’d only surrendered after much bargaining. She’d offered to bring desert, an offer which had been vehemently denied until she’d promised to buy desert rather than make it herself.

So when she steps off the elevator, carrying a pumpkin pie and an apple pie from her favourite bakery, it’s to the sound of music, Tony yelling in the kitchen, Rhodey’s laughter and Happy’s unamused grumbling as he stalks into the living room covered in flour. Pepper’s curled up on the couch watching the scene unfold with a glass of wine and an amused grin, Vision is sitting beside her with a small smile across his red face.

“Hi, Happy!” Peter greets excitedly, “Hi, Vision, Hi Miss. Potts!”

“Hello, Dear.” Pepper greets kindly, “Hello, May, welcome to the circus.”

May laughs and holds up the pies, “Kitchen?”

Pepper puts her wine glass down and stands up, “I’ll take them and grab you a glass of wine while I’m at it, the ringmaster is being a bit choosey about who’s allowed in his space right now.”

“What’re the chances we end up with food poisoning by the end of this?” May asks quietly.

“I heard that May Parker!” Tony calls, “The complete and utter lack of faith you all have in me is incredibly sad, you trust me right, Kid?”

He steps into the living room and May has to press her knuckles against her lips to keep from laughing at the sight in front of her. If you had told her ten years ago that she would be standing in Tony Stark’s living room while the man himself was in a full body apron, covered in flour with his hands on his hips like a disapproving mother hen she would’ve laughed in your face. As it is she’s struggling to contain herself.

“I mean… It can’t be that bad.” Peter replies carefully.

The carefulness in his tone is belied by the smirk on his face and May can’t stop the laughter this time.

Tony throws up his hands and turns on his heels, “No faith, honest to God.”

Pepper rolls her eyes at the theatrics as she takes the pies out of May’s hands and reaches over to ruffle Peter’s curls.

“I bet he’ll let you help if you want.” She offers.

“I’m not sure I want to be a part of whatever train wreck is about to happen.” Peter replies.

“Parker get your ass in here! Now!”

Peter rolls his eyes but scurries off into the kitchen. May has no desire to enter the war zone so she just wanders into the living room and makes herself comfortable in one of the armchairs. She makes small talk with Vision, she’s decided she likes the man, until Pepper returns with her wine.

Happy makes his way back into the penthouse ten minutes later in a completely new outfit and May smiles over her shoulder at him. He offers her a grin and casually squeezes her shoulder as he passes. May turns around to see Pepper giving her a knowing look and a small smile.

“Don’t start with me, your man child has already got that covered.”

Pepper’s laughter fills the apartment just as there’s the sound of something dropping in the kitchen followed by a loud ‘shit’ from Peter.

“Language, Peter Benjamin Parker!”

“You literally said ass not even ten minutes ago.” Peter argues indignantly.

“I am the adult!”

Pepper’s laughing into her hand as Happy wanders back into the living room shaking his head muttering ‘Jesus Christ’ under his breath.

It’s their first Thanksgiving since Ben died in April and May had been silently dreading it for weeks, she wouldn’t admit it to anyone but she’d woken up early and cried until her alarm had gone off that morning. She knows Peter’d had his breakdown the night before, she’d held him while he’d cried and then plied him with ice cream and Brooklyn Nine-Nine and then held him again when he’d woken up screaming for Ben at three in the morning. She had been dreading their apartment missing one person, a too quiet meal of burnt food, but now sitting on the couch listening to Tony and Peter bicker, Happy’s barely veiled amusement, Pepper trying to contain her own giggles, Rhodey’s occasional input and/or protests in the kitchen and Vision’s quiet observance she finds that maybe it’s not too bad. She misses her husband dearly and she wishes they could be a family again, back in their apartment that barely fit the three of them but this is okay too. This could be family too.

**** 

When she wakes up suddenly at four in the morning she takes a few minutes to catalogue her surroundings. The soft mattress underneath her and the smell of lilac laundry detergent, different from the one she uses at home, the absence of noise and light from the street below is what finally makes it click. She was in the guest room at the tower. She hadn’t actually planned on spending the night but one glass of wine with Pepper had turned into four and Peter had seemed excited about the idea so she’d finally given in.

She rolls over and then sits up in bed. She slides out of bed and slips out of her room and into the hallway. To her surprise Peter’s bedroom door is propped open, normally he likes it shut when he sleeps. She steps closer and furrows her brow when she hears soft talking inside.

“Did I ever tell you about the time Rhodey and I went to Hawaii for spring break, Kid?”

She steps closer to the door and peeks into the room to see Tony propped up against Peter’s headboard, her nephew is laying on his side and Tony has a hand buried in his hair as he speaks softly about some story or another. She’s not really listening to the words, she’s watching the way Tony brushes Peter’s curls back as he speaks softly, words that don’t really mean anything but seem to sooth Peter until his breathing evens out.

“Alrighty, Kiddo.” Tony whispers eventually, “Unless you say something now I’m gonna head back to bed, count some sheep so I can get up in a few hours and make a breakfast fit for a growing Spider-Baby.”

Peter stays silent and she watches as Tony slowly edges his way off the bed and then pauses to make sure Peter is properly covered.

She catches Tony’s eye and backs out of the way so he can exit the room and shut the door behind him.

“I should’ve come got you.” Tony whispers.

“Looks like you did fine all on your own.” May replies gently, “Did you get up and hear him?”

Tony looks at the ground sheepishly, “I have F.R.I.D.A.Y set up to alert me if he has a nightmare. Maybe that’s crossing a line but I figured he shouldn’t be alone, especially if he can’t get back to sleep.”

May tilts her head to the side to study him, “Why?”

“So he’s not alone.” Tony says again.

“No, why did you start doing it?”

“He came out for breakfast one morning looking like he hadn’t slept all weekend.” Tony replies slowly, “F.R.I.D.A.Y. confirmed it so I set this up.”

“Does he know?”

“No.” Tony replies, “I was afraid if he found out he’d stop sleeping so FRI wouldn’t tell me if he had a nightmare.”

“Probably a good idea.” May replies with a humourless laugh, “How many times have you gotten up with him?”

“This is only the second time.” Tony replies, “I uh, I’m trying but I’m not sure I know what to do.”

“You got him back to sleep.” May says, “That’s more than I can do half the time… He’s… He’s had a hard time since Ben died.”

Tony nods sadly, “And seeing the stuff he sees on patrol doesn’t help anything.”

“Does he ever tell you what the nightmares are about?” May asks slowly.

“No… I’ve asked if he wants to talk about it but he says no and I try not to push him, not when he’s like that.”

“He won’t tell me either.” May replies with a sigh.

She leans against the wall, exhaustion taking over even though she’s been asleep for most of the night.

“I don’t know how to help him.” She whispers, “I know he hasn’t been sleeping, I know that and I’ve tried talking to him about it but he won’t talk to me, he just tells me that he’s fine and plays it off.”

“Yeah that sounds about right.” Tony replies with a sigh, “I don’t like feeling helpless.” He admits quietly.

May gives him a small smile and tilts her head sympathetically, “Welcome to being a parent, ninety percent of what we do is worry and feel helpless.”

“I’m not-“

May gives him a pointed look that shuts him up mid sentence. As much as she had distrusted him in the beginning seeing him with Peter the last few weeks, seeing the lengths he went to for her kid to make sure he was safe and happy, made her trust him. She had never expected to see him up in the middle of the night sitting with Peter, calming him down after a nightmare. She had been slowly getting used to being a single parent but she was surprised to find a bit of relief in having someone else in her corner.

“Go back to bed, Tony.” She orders gently, “You’ve earned it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for your continued support!


	10. Chapter 10

Tony laughs as a snowball slams it’s way directly into his face. It’s his weekend with Peter and the weekend happened to come on the heels of the first big snow storm of the year. He’d confirmed that the roads were safe and then had made the executive decision to take advantage of it and spend their weekend out at the compound. The Rogue Avenger’s being pardoned was going to become public knowledge later that week and if things went according to plan this would be the last weekend Peter would be able to spend at the compound until he figured out a way to explain him to the other Avengers without giving away his identity. Not that he particularly wanted Peter anywhere near the Rogue Avengers, he still hadn’t told the teen what was about to happen.

“That was just rude, Vis!”

Vision, who had been doing his best to learn ‘winter customs’ as he phrased it, had joined them outside and asked Peter to teach him how to have a snowball fight. The ensuing battle had left Tony nearly breathless, doubled over in laughter as Vision and Peter had gotten into it.

“Come on, Mr.Stark! I thought Iron Man was supposed to be quicker than that.”

He raises an eyebrow at Peter, “Careful with the sass there young Padawan.”

Just because he tries his best not to watch Star Wars now doesn’t mean that he doesn’t know the references, they had been his guilty pleasure back in college. He scoops up snow and carefully packs it before launching at Peter who steps out of the way easily.

“I don’t think it’s really fair that I’m the only un-enhanced individual-“

His sentence is cut off by a loud boom. He sees Peter nearly jump out of his skin and smirks a bit at the kid, the boom was loud and unexpected but it’s a sound Tony’s used to and as he turns around his smirk changes to an all out smile.

“Brucie-Bear!” He holds out his arms for the other scientist who willingly walks into them.

“Hey, Tony.”

And _fuck_ if he didn’t miss that soft spoken voice that hides the man the can turn into a big green rage monster at any given time. He steps back and turns to the other man with a wide grin.

“Point Break!”

Thor steps forward and sweeps him into a bone crushing hug.

“Careful big guy, fragile human here.” He gasps.

Thor carefully returns him to the ground and both men greet Vision with equal enthusiasm before turning to Peter who’s been hanging back. Tony beckons him over and plants a hand firmly on his shoulder as soon as he’s close enough.

“This is Peter Parker, Pete, Bruce Banner and Thor.”

“I uh,” The kid stumbles, “I know who you are, I’m a huge fan of your work Dr. Banner your work on Gamma Radiation and Nuclear Physics is just amazing, I’ve read all of your journals and just wow, um I can’t believe I’m meeting you.” He turns to Thor, “And Mr. Thor I don’t even, I can’t, just wow.”

Tony squeezes his shoulder and chuckles quietly, “Give him a second to get over his fangirling.” He says, “You’re gonna love this kid Bruce, he can keep up with me in the lab.”

“Sir I have so many questions for you.” Peter says breathlessly, “I don’t even know where to start.”

Bruce looks confused by the kid but also tickled pink at the prospect of being someone’s favourite for something other than being able to turn green.

“Yeah.” Bruce agrees looking at Tony, “I have a lot of questions too.”

Tony bites his lip and nods, “Hey, Pete, run inside and get changed okay?” When it looks like the kid is going to protest he levels him with a pointed look, “You’re soaking wet, I need to talk to Thor and Bruce for a few minutes, catch them up on everything, then you can pick Bruce’s brain for as long as he’ll let you.”

Peter hesitates for a second before nodding and taking off.

“How long do you need?” Vision asks softly.

“Give me fifteen minutes.”

Vision nods and disappears.

“Come on, let’s head inside.” Tony offers, tilting his head to the compound.

“Excellent!” Thor exclaims happily, “I do wish to see all of our shield brothers again!”

Tony winces but doesn’t comment on it. Once they’re settled in the conference room Tony begins to recount everything that’s happened since Bruce disappeared and Thor returned to Asgard.

“So everyone is just gone?” Bruce asks in disbelief, “Almost the whole team?”

Tony purses his lips and nods, he starts to explain the Accords and the plan for the coming week.

“They’re coming back?”

Tony grimaces at the sound of Peter’s voice in the doorway, he hadn’t heard him approaching and he’s already mentally figuring out how to punish F.R.I.D.A.Y for not alerting him. Tony rubs his hands over his eyes and then turns to Peter with a small sigh.

“I was going to tell you.”

Peter goes rigid at that and Tony braces himself for one hell of a fight, he’s seen that look on Peter’s face exactly three times and none of them went well.

“When?” Peter asks, “When I came out for breakfast one day and found Cap just eating cereal?” Realization dawns on Peter’s face, “No, no because you moved back to the Tower to make _sure_ that that wouldn’t happen.”

“That’s not-“ He abruptly shuts his mouth when Peter holds up a hand to silence him.

He knows he’s the adult and he should tell Peter to watch himself or have some respect but he can’t bring himself to do it, not when he knows he’s in the wrong.

“I want a straight yes or no answer.” Peter says seriously, “Are you letting them move back in here.”

“I’m giving them the option.”

“Yes or no.” Peter repeats.

“Yes.” He admits, his voice laced with defeat.

Peter crosses his arms and considers him for a minute before nodding, “So it was all for nothing then.” He states, “The airport, Rhodey, Siberia.”

That makes Tony’s entire body go ridged, “What do you know about Siberia?” He asks tensely, “ _How_ do you know about Siberia?”

“I saw you after.” Peter replies, “I saw the suit.”

Tony shuts his eyes because he knows exactly where this is going.

“There is only one thing on earth strong enough to make those kinds of dents in the suit. There is only one thing on earth that matches the scar across your chest.” Peter replies, “Cap tried to kill you and you’re going to let him come back here like it was nothing? I saw the suit footage, you were pulling your punches and he wasn’t, he wasn’t holding back when he rammed the shield into your face plate, not once but twice.” He clenches his jaw, “If the reactor was still in your chest you’d be dead.”

“There’s a lot you don’t understand.” Tony replies firmly, because now he’s feeling trapped.

“Don’t you dare.” Peter replies tightly, “Don’t you dare pull the you’re just a kid card here because guess what? I _was_ just a kid and then you pulled me into this entire clusterfuck so don’t tell me that I don’t understand what’s going on.”

He’s entirely taken aback by Peter’s tone, this is a tone he’s never heard before. He’s seen the kid angry, upset, sad, scared but he’s never seen him this livid before and he may be a forty four year old man, hell he may be Iron Man but he’s honestly a bit afraid in that moment. He can hear Bruce taking a few calming breaths and he wants to warn Peter to cool it before the other guy comes out but he keeps his mouth shut.

“You pulled me into this, you asked me to fight for something and I did it.” Peter replies his voice rising, “I got an airport hanger dropped on me by Captain America, I lied to my aunt, I left her alone a month after her husband died because you asked me to!”

The look on Peter’s face is enough to break his heart ten times over. He beats himself up regularly about pulling the kid into this but hearing it from the kid himself is a whole other kind of torture.

“I put my family at risk when I put myself out there to help you and you letting them come back here like nothing happened, that makes it all pointless.” He bites his lip and shakes his head, “You letting them come back here makes every sacrifice we’ve made pointless, so don’t tell me I’m just a kid, because in this you made me be an adult.”

“The world needs the Avengers.” It’s the only thing he can think to say because Peter’s made all good points, there’s nothing he can argue against, there’s only the facts left.

Peter’s chin quivers in a way that tells Tony he’s only seconds from tears and he hates himself for causing it.

“And I need you.” Peter replies, his voice wavering for the first time, “Cap didn’t even consider that maybe people needed you, that the Avenger’s need you, the world needs you, he was only thinking of himself when he brought that shield down on your chest. The world needs the Avengers but what good are the Avengers when you’re dead? Cap wasn’t thinking about the greater good and _that_ is what makes him dangerous, not that he thought he was right.” He takes a deep breath and clenches his fists, “And you letting him come back here like nothing happened says that you just don’t care.”

Tony opens up his mouth to respond but Peter just shakes his head.

“I don’t want to hear it.” His voice is defeated, “I’ve spent so long trying to be better and now I don’t even know why I bothered when apparently you can get away with murder around here.”

He wants to say something, wants to protest, argue, assure Peter that he’s going to do everything to keep him safe, he wants to do _something_ but he just sits quietly as Peter turns on his heel and disappears down the hall.

He turns back to the table and rests his head in his hands with a defeated sigh. When he raises his head Thor and Bruce are looking at him with expressions mixed with pity, confusion and concern. Rhodey, who up until that point had been in his office is standing at the end of the table with his arms crossed and a stormy expression on his face.

“How much did you hear?” Tony finally asks.

“Enough that we’re going to be having a talk later.” Rhodey replies firmly.

“May as well get it over with now.” Tony replies with a wave of his hands, “Everyone else is saying how they feel, you may as well too.”

“No.” Rhodey replies, leaving no room for argument in his tone, “Right now you’re going to pull yourself out of this pity party, you’re going to get your ass up and you are going to march down the hall and be there for your kid.”

“He’s not-“

“Don’t.” Rhodey interrupts, “We’re not playing this game right now, he’s right, you brought him into this now you need to man up and deal with him.” Rhodey waits until Tony’s standing up before speaking again, “And you are going to be the man you needed when you were his age, you are not going to be Howard.” His voice softens, “I’m not going to tell you how to parent your kid but he’s not wrong Tones, and he’s not stupid either.”

“Yeah.” Tony agrees softly. “I know.”

****

He finds Peter sitting in his bedroom, in the middle of his kingsized bed with his legs pulled up and his chin resting on his knees.

“At the airport Cap asked me if I knew why I was there, I told him that you said that Cap was wrong but he thought he was right and that made him dangerous. I didn’t tell him that I had read the Accords cover to cover, that I knew every detail and that I knew exactly how terrible they were.” Peter says, his voice is quiet in a way Tony has never heard. “I let him believe I was following blindly, I let _you_ believe I was following blindly; but I wasn’t. I knew exactly what those papers meant for me and let me tell you if Steve had gotten to me first I might’ve sided with him because the Accords were shit, they were a leash for you but they were a death sentence for me.”

“Why fight for it then?” Tony asks, because he’s an idiot and apparently a masochist and he needs to understand why the kid did what he did if he didn’t believe in the reason.

“Because I trusted you, I trusted you to fix them, I trusted you to protect me like you always have.” Peter replies, “But also because I had a luxury no one else had, I had almost three years to go before I could sign them.”

“I-“

“No.” Peter cuts him off, his voice isn’t harsh, it’s just tired. “I’m talking now and you need to listen because you need to understand this.”

Tony gives him a warning look but keeps his mouth shut.

“You had nothing to lose with those Accords, you wanted accountability and so did I, but that wasn’t the way to do it. The only thing you risked was maybe having to ask permission before bringing out the suit, I would’ve had to register, put my name and address down. I don’t know if you’re aware of what happens to people like me when that happens but I know Doctor Banner is.” Peter finally makes eye contact with Tony and the pain in the kids eyes is enough to shatter his heart. “Ross hates people like us, registering may seem harmless to you but it opens us up, it opens our families up to a lot of bad things and eventually it’s only a matter of time before we suddenly disappear off the streets never to be seen again.”

Peter clenches his jaw and takes a deep breath before continuing, “I understand why we need accountability, and the new Accords do that great. Here’s the thing about the old Accords, I had a few years before I had to be registered but Wanda, Steve and Sergeant Barnes, they didn’t have that. The threat was real and immediate for them no matter how much you wanted to amend after the fact. Amendments take time, time that could’ve cost them their lives.” Peter clenches and unclenches his fists, “I fought with you because you were right, we need accountability, we can’t keep working without it, we can’t keep expecting people to blindly put their trust in us but in trying to be accountable we made things worse.”

“Yeah we did.” Tony agrees softly.

He takes a step into the room and shuts the door behind him before walking over to Peter’s bed.

“Can I sit?” Peter nods and he takes a seat on the edge of the bed, “I should’ve never asked you to fight, it was irresponsible and wrong.” He starts slowly, “I should’ve asked what you thought about it, tried to explain it better to you than I did and that’s on me.”

Peter turns his head so he can meet Tony’s eyes and the sight of those large brown eyes, red around the rims and swimming with unshed tears destroys what was left of his already shattered heart.

“I was the adult and I didn’t act like it, you’re right I made you act like an adult but treated you like a kid and that was wrong too.” He takes a deep breath, “And I’m sorry kid, if I could go back and redo it I would.”

“It’s not even about the Accords.” Peter replies with a sigh, “There better now, they’re _safe_ now…”

“It’s about Siberia.” Tony finishes for him.

Peter looks down at his knees and fixates on them as he nods, “Yeah.”

“How’d you find out?”

“I saw the suit when Happy was loading it onto the jet when we left Germany.” Peter admits.

“And the footage?”

“F.R.I.D.A.Y. I asked her about it in the lab and convinced her it was for your safety.” He peeks over at Tony, “I shouldn’t have watched it… I’m sorry.”

Tony rubs a hand over his face and shrugs, “Don’t do it again and we’ll call it even, deal?”

“Okay.”

He knows he needs to ask his next question but he really doesn’t want to… “How much did you see?”

Peter looks down at his knees guiltily, “All of it… I’m sorry about your parents.”

“Yeah, me too.” Tony replies with a sigh.

He shifts so he’s a bit closer to Peter and reaches out to rest a hand on the kids knee, “I get why you’re upset, I do, kid. Hell if I wanted to be selfish I wouldn’t let them back, at least not Cap but I don’t get that choice. The world needs the Avengers and that means all of them.” He squeezes his knee, “But I need you to know that I won’t let anything happen to you, okay? You’re safe, your identity is safe as long as you want it to be.”

“I’m not worried about me.”

Tony chuckles softly, “Yeah, I know… But I’m gonna be just fine, Kiddo, I’ve got you and Pepper and Rhodey. Steve isn’t going to try anything, he wants the Avengers back together just as much as I do.”

“How do you know?”

“Because we were both wrong and we both know it. Things got out of hand really quickly, we’re going to work to make the Avengers better than ever and we need to get along to do that.” Tony replies with a one shoulder shrug.

“Are you going to be going out in the field again?”

Tony considers it for a second, “Not as much as I used to, I promised Pep I’d slow down. I’ll help out with consultations, tech stuff, equipment, funding and maybe the occasional mission if they’re short, I figure maybe it’s time to leave it to the young blood.” He debates it for as second before continuing, “After Ultron I said that maybe I’d build Pep a farm or something, really retire. I don’t think we’re quite there yet but the penthouse, moving back to the city is a step in the right direction. The team has enough fliers right now that I feel comfortable stepping back a bit, I’ll just be on call, maybe help out my favourite Spider-kid a bit if the urge strikes me.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Tony replies.

“I’m sorry I got mad at you.” Peter says after a minute, “I shouldn’t’ve yelled.”

If he was his father he would yell at Peter and tell him he’s damn right that he shouldn’t have yelled, that being said if he were Howard they wouldn’t have been having this conversation at all, he’d be drinking while Peter silently cried in his room or did something incredibly self destructive.

“I think this time, and this time only, “ He warns, “you were okay.”

He removes his hand from Peter’s knee and opens up his arms, “Come ‘ere.” Peter looks at him questioningly and Tony can’t help but roll his eyes fondly, “We’re there.”

Peter shifts so that he can lean against Tony and Tony immediately tightens his arms around him and buries a hand in his hair. It’s the first time he’s shown any physical affection to the kid during daylight hours when they’re not both half asleep or terrified out of their mind and the kid settles into it quickly.

“We gonna be okay?” Tony asks against the top of Peter’s head.

“Yeah.” Peter says with a small sigh, “We’re good.”


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for the reviews! You make my week!

When Tony is finally done being yelled at by Rhodey, who is understandably upset by a number of different things, he makes his way down to his personal lab where he finds Thor and Bruce staring up at the ceiling.

“Ah yes this is excellent!” Thor yells up at the ceiling.

When Tony looks up he feels his stomach jump into his throat, Peter’s hanging upside down from the ceiling, his feet stuck to the ceiling the only thing keeping him in place.

“Absolutely not.” He snaps his fingers and points to the ground, “Spider-Babies keep their feet firmly on the ground please.”

“That literally defeats the purpose of Spider-Man.” Peter reasons.

“Jesus Christ, Kid.” Tony gestures wildly, “I have a heart condition.”

Peter smirks and does a backflip off the ceiling and lands in a perfect three point crouch. Tony just shakes his head as Thor claps and Bruce looks on.

“Excellent Man of Spiders!” Thor applauds, “You are much like your father son of Stark.”

Tony rubs his thumb and forefinger over his eyes as Peter blushes an impressive shade of red.

“What did Rhodey say to you?” Tony asks.

“Nothing,” Bruce assures him, “He said that he’d let you explain.”

“Oh goody.” Tony deadpans, “Go do homework or something, Kid.”

“You said-“

“I do recall just saying go do your homework.” Tony says sarcastically, “Now go do your homework or I’m going to start pulling out baby pictures.”

Peter narrows his eyes, “You don’t have any baby pictures.”

“You really want to wager on that?” Tony asks, “Or even better I can start pulling out your prepubescent art work.”

“Okay fine I’m going.” Peter finally concedes, “What time is supper?”

“Half an hour, I’m ordering pizza, do _not_ tell Pepper.” Tony warns, “I already fed you pizza once this week.”

May isn’t overly strict on what they eat since takeout is the main form of sustenance in their house but Pepper likes to remind him that teenagers, particularly teenagers who have super metabolisms, need more vegetables. He’s trying to be a responsible adult, to be better but there are some areas - food being a big one - where he is a little more slack.

He watches Peter leave the lab with a fond smile and a small shake of his head. He’s still not willing to actually admit it to himself but he loves that kid, he would die for that kid in a heartbeat. He had told Pepper years ago that she was the one thing he couldn’t live without but now he’s starting to wonder if Peter’s taken that spot, if it’s okay that Peter’s taken that spot. He would be lost without Pepper but he would survive, for Peter but if something were to happen to Peter he’s not sure he’d be able to keep going. If something were to happen to both of him he knows that he wouldn’t be able to keep going.

“So…” Bruce’s soft voice pulls him out of his introspection, “Your son?”

The question makes him panic a lot less this time, the panic is almost replaced by a small tug of longing but he shakes his head.

“No.” Tony replies, “I’m guessing he told you he’s Spider-Man.”

“He did.” Bruce nods.

“I pulled him off the streets of Queens last May.” Tony says, “He helped out with the Cap situation and then laid low for a few months, I kept my distance and then we had a bit of an incident in September.” He smirks at the understatement, “And now I have him Monday, Wednesday, Friday afternoons and every other weekend.”

“I’ve been gone two years and you’ve somehow acquired a teenager and a custody agreement?” Bruce asks in disbelief.

Tony sighs and throws up his hands, “Sure, since everyone seems to focus on that.” He rolls his eyes, “I need you both to keep Peter’s existence, as Spider-Man or otherwise to yourself.”

“You are not going to tell the rest of our brothers?” Thor asks in surprise, “In Asgard the arrival of a new child is celebrated widely!”

“I know that.” Tony replies patiently, “But right now I want to keep Peter separate, at least until everyone gets settled and we figure out our new normal.”

“Okay.” Bruce agrees.

“I do not quite understand but I will respect your wishes.” Thor adds, “I will keep the existence of the Man of Spiders silent.”

“To avoid any accidents.” Bruce interrupts, “How many people know?”

“Just us, Rhodey now, I’m pretty sure Vision does but he knows not to say anything and Pepper.” He does a mental count to be sure he’s got everyone, “Oh and Happy.”

Happy who he’s pretty sure is dating May but he keeps that tidbit to himself, he likes to meddle and interfere a little bit but he won’t advertise other people’s personal lives, especially when he’s asking them for secrecy on his personal life.

“Peter’s actually the reason I got into touch with you.” He says turning to Bruce, “I’m trying to come up with medication for him, you know pain killers, anesthetic in case we need it, I also want to know more about his genetic makeup but that’s really not my area.”

“Do you have any information so far?”

“He shares a lot of similar traits with Cap, he has an insane metabolism. Pepper and I feed him constantly and he’s still hungry. I’ve let him use some of Cap’s more challenging equipment in the gym and it’s still easy for him, he has accelerated healing but he hasn’t had any major injuries in the last month or two so I haven’t been able to study it but you might be able to ask him about it.” Tony leans over and knocks on the wooden part of his work station, “I haven’t tried him on anything yet, medication wise, it hasn’t really come up. We need to figure this stuff out so we’re ready if something happens but I don’t want him to feel like an experiment.”

“Okay.” Bruce nods thoughtfully, “I’ll do my best but I am going to need to draw some blood.”

“If he’s okay with it that’s fine.” Tony replies, “Maybe let him watch what you’re doing, let him help a bit, he’s a smart kid.”

“He is.” Bruce agrees, “I only talked to him a little bit but he seems like he knows his stuff and his web formula is amazing I can’t believe a fourteen year old came up with that.”

“Me either.” Tony replies, “Now,” He claps his hands together, “Enough science talk for now, let’s go feed Peter and Point Break before they waste away to nothing.”

“I have greatly missed pizza!” Thor says enthusiastically, “And I would like to see this show that the young Man of Spiders was speaking of.”

“Brooklyn Nine-Nine?”

“Yes that is the one!”

Tony nods, “Yeah, you’ll love it.” He leads them to the door of the lab, “I ordered your favourite, Thor, and you’re lucky no one will fight you for it.”

Thor and Clint were the only two on the team who enjoyed Hawaiian pizza.

“Peter doesn’t like Hawaiian?” Bruce asks.

“I once asked him about it and it turned into a ten minute monologue about how fruit on pizza is sacrilegious.” Tony replies, “Just don’t bring it up.”

Upstairs in the common area Vision is flitting around the kitchen pulling out plates and utensils -why they would need them for pizza Tony has no idea but he won’t question it either- and Peter is sitting at the kitchen island with a textbook open in front of him, an ear bud in one ear but his attention is completely on Rhodey who is standing beside him pointing something out in his notebook. The thing people tend to forget about Rhodey is that he also attended MIT, not for engineering like Tony but the guy was smarter than anyone realized and he could keep pace at least a bit in the world of science.

Tony wanders into the kitchen and peeks over Peter’s shoulder. “Are you corrupting him?”

“Colonel Rhodes is helping me with my history homework.”

Peter is smart but Tony knows history and English are his least favourite classes out of everything he’s taking that semester. They don’t challenge him or particularly interest him and Tony can relate to that.

He gives Rhodey a nod of thanks -Rhodey knows how much he hates anything that isn’t STEM related- and moves to the fridge to grab a bottle of water and turns to Thor.

“I don’t have anything to drink big guy, just water, juice and milk.” He says turning back to the fridge, “I was going to do a run to the store at some point this week, stock up before everyone comes back.”

“That is fine!” Thor replies easily, “I will simply have some of the chocolate milk, a lovely Midgardian beverage.”

Tony sees Peter watching the God of Thunder out of the corner of his eye with an air of amusement and Tony can’t stop his own grin.

“Whatever you want big guy, it’s all in the fridge help yourself.” He turns to Bruce and nods to the cupboard where the tea is kept, “Lots of tea in there for you Brucie-bear.”

Bruce nods his thanks and moves to dig through the cupboard. Tony wants to talk more about logistics with the other scientist but wants to wait until they’re alone. He has a feeling that Bruce is going to turn down his offer to return to the Avengers but he’d like to ask him if he’d be willing to sign on to do R&D with him for the team, work on medications for the kid and help him rebuild their med team. He has the apartments for the Avengers still in the tower, they’re not set up anymore but he’s planning to at least put Bruce’s -and apparently Thor’s because he gets the feeling that they’re a package deal these days- apartment set back up. He needs Cho at the compound, she is after all the official doctor for the Avengers but he’d like Bruce in the city in case something happens to Peter. He knows reasonably that it might be too much to ask of Bruce but he’s hopping a handsome pay check, free living arrangements and free reign over his lab and unlimited resources to study whatever the hell he wants will be incentive enough. He also knows Bruce isn’t technically ‘that kind of doctor’ but he trusts the man more than he would anyone else he could hire and when it comes to Peter he has this inherent need to _protect_ at all costs. He doesn’t stop to ponder why that is and he refuses to think about the jab Pepper had made the week before about him being a mother bear.

****

This is the best day of Peter’s life, well the best day with the minor inconvenience of his first real fight with Tony since the man had taken an active role in his life. But if he ignores that it’s the best day of his life especially when he considers that he’s standing in Bruce Banner’s lab with the man himself.

“So Peter, I need to draw a bit of blood if that’s okay with you.”

Okay so maybe not the _best_ day of his life but he can make minor sacrifices in the name of science, even if the idea of needles makes him want to simultaneously throw up and pass out. Bruce must see his face pale at the idea.

“I promise I’ll make it quick and I’ll take enough that I won’t have to do it again any time soon.”

That’s not particularly reassuring to him. “Yeah, for sure, uh whatever you need Doctor Banner.”

“Just Bruce is fine, Peter.” Bruce says gently.

He gestures for Peter to take a seat on the chair in front of him and Peter watches as he moves around the lab grabbing everything he’ll need. His eyes stray to Mr. Stark in the corner, the man is hunched over in his chair with a StarkPad in his hands. Dr. Banner - Bruce, wanders closer to Tony and turns away from Peter.

“Come distract him.”

Judging by the soft spoken way Bruce says it and the way he turns away from Peter, Peter knows he wasn’t meant to hear the words but he’s grateful - if a bit embarrassed- for them. Mr. Stark looks over to Peter and he must not like what he sees because he’s out of his chair in a second and over by Peter before the teen can blink.

“So what movie are we watching tonight, Kiddo?”

He still finds it a bit weird when Mr. Stark calls him anything other than Kid or Pete, that’s not to say he doesn’t like it he’s just settling in to the new normal. He’d almost cried when he’d seen his room at the Tower, everything about it was perfect. The level of care Mr.Stark and Ms. Potts put into it was obvious and the fact that they’d moved back had made him feel both incredibly grateful and incredibly guilty, something Mr. Stark had put an end to almost immediately. He’d wanted Mr. Stark to be more involved in his life, be more active in his mentorship but he’d never expected the level of involvement he’d gotten. He’d never expected Tony Stark to sit in bed with him at night and talk him through nightmares, he’d never expected the man to learn all of his favourite foods and make sure to have them on hand. He’d never expected Ms. Potts to be as kind as she was or Colonel Rhodes to be as ready to help as he was. He’d never expected to find a family in the people around him. He’s grateful for it but it also scares him because he doesn’t know where the line is, there are times when his brain automatically thinks of Mr. Stark as a father figure rather than a mentor and he struggles to shut that down. He knows Mr. Stark doesn’t see him as a son of any kind, he’s just an intern and a mentee to the older man but he seems to be warming up more and more. He’d even go as far as to say that May and Mr. Stark are actually sort of friends now.

“Kid?”

He turns to Mr. Stark questioningly, his mind had drifted off and he’d zoned out.

“Sorry, what Mr. Stark?”

“Lift your arm up so Bruce can tie the tourniquet around it, okay?”

Peter lifts his arm and looks down at the needle on the tray next to Bruce, he feels a gentle finger on his chin as his head is turned to face Mr. Stark.

“Why don’t you keep your eyes over here for now?” Mr. Stark suggests lightly, “So, what movie are we watching tonight?”

“I get to pick?” Peter asks skeptically.

“Anything but Star Wars.” Mr. Stark promises.

He winces as Bruce stretches out his arm and slowly slides the needle in.

“I feel like I’m far too cool for Star Wars.” Mr. Stark continues, “Same goes for Star Trek, other than those two you can pick whatever your nerdy little heart desires.”

Peter considers it for a moment, trying to get his attention off of the needle in his arm, “Dodgeball.”

“Ah, a mindless classic, I approve.”

It’s a stupid movie but he likes it and he has a feeling Thor will get a kick out of it.

“Are you going to watch Doctor-“ He pauses, “Bruce?”

“I think I can clear my schedule out for a bit.” Bruce replies slowly as he switches out the vials, “Only if we have movie appropriate snacks.”

“Of course.” Peter replies.

Bruce fills one more vial, “Okay in about two seconds I’m going to take the needle out.”

Peter shuts his eyes and clenches his free fist until he feels another warn hand close over his. He can feel the calluses against his hands and knows that it’s Mr. Stark.

“Bad idea.” He mutters, “I could hurt you.”

“Not worried about it.” Mr. Stark replies breezily.

He lets out a hiss as he feels Bruce slide the needle out of his arm. It’s quickly replaced by the pressure of a cotton ball followed by a bandaid.

“Alright, all done.” Bruce says soothingly, “You should go eat a snack or have a glass of orange juice.”

He turns to Mr. Stark hopefully, “Are there cookies?”

Mr. Stark rolls his eyes, “In the kitchen.”

Peter pumps his fist and bounces off the stool to go in search for cookies.

****

Tony watches Peter go with a fond smile, God he hates how much he lo-no-likes the kid.

“You’re good at that.” Bruce says softly.

“What?” Tony asks distractedly, his attention is back on his StarkPad.

“You’re good with him.” Bruce clarifies, “You’re a good dad.”

“And you’re not funny.”

Bruce chuckles softly as he wanders around the lab putting things back where they belong and logging in Peter’s samples.

“I’m going to work on this for about an hour and then I’ll come up for the movie.” Bruce says after a few minutes.

“Sounds good.” Tony replies, “I’m sure Point Break and Pete will find some chaotic way to keep themselves busy.”

“Good luck with that.”

“I’ll need it.” Tony chuckles, “Hey listen before I go there’s something I want to talk to you about.”

Bruce puts down the beaker in his hand and turns to Tony with a raised eyebrow.

“I wanna bring you back on the team.”

“I thought _you_ weren’t even back on the team.”

“I’m technically a consultant and head of R&D.” Tony replies with a shrug, “And of course I fund the whole damn thing.”

“I’ve finally got the other guy under control… I love the team, love the Avengers but I think I’m done unless it’s a real emergency.”

“I figured you’d say that.” Tony says, “Which is why I’m offering Bruce a spot, not the Hulk, as much as I love the big guy this job is a bit more your side of the coin.”

Tony can tell he’s piqued Bruce’s interest. “What’re you talking about?”

“With the Rogues coming back the team is growing, we’ve got a whole bunch of new people to deal with and I could use a hand with R&D, suit upgrades that kind of thing.” He cracks his fingers and settles back into his chair, “And I could use someone to help me with making medication and stuff for our enhanced team members.”

“And I would stay here at the compound?”

“You could if you really wanted too.” Tony replies with a small shrug, “But ideally I’d like you in New York at the Tower. I need Cho here as the official doctor to the Avengers but it would be nice to have you on hand in the city if something minor-ish happens to Peter. Plus if you’re there you’ll have access to your old apartment and lab and funding to do whatever research you want.”

“Are you bribing me?” His tone is teasing and it makes Tony chuckle.

“Maybe.” He shrugs, “Plus if Thor wants to tag along he can be closer to Jane.”

“Are the other Avengers going to keep apartments at the tower?”

It’s something he’s thought about but hasn’t come to a definitive decision on.

“If they want to.”

He’s angry but he doesn’t know if he could actually say no if one of them asked him, Pepper would call it his desperate need to please everyone, Rhodey would call it stupid, in light of everything that’s happened in the last ten hours Peter would probably call him a dumbass outright.

“I think right now it’s better that they don’t, at least until things settle down.” Tony adds, “You and Thor have been out of the public eye and you had nothing to do with the Accords so it shouldn’t cause too much backlash. I also need to figure out how that would work with Pete and the other Avengers, the tower is his home too and I want him to feel comfortable there and right now I don’t think he would be comfortable with Steve wandering around.” He takes a deep breath and hesitates for a second. “The team used to mean everything to me, and it still means a lot but Pepper and Pete they need to come first now. It might make me look like an ass but right now I need to set boundaries.”

Bruce crosses his arms, “Doesn’t make you look like an ass.” He says, “You’re looking out for your family, we’ve all had to make those choices… The team may not understand it without all of the information but at this point I don’t think anyone is going to question it. I don’t think anyone is expecting things to go back to normal right away.”

Tony rubs a hand over his face roughly, “Yeah… I just…” He looks up at Bruce and shrugs, “I am so goddamn tired.”

Even admitting it to Bruce makes him feel weak but Pepper doesn’t quite understand and he feels like an asshole complaining to Rhodey when he has everything else going on. Bruce purses his lips and nods.

“Yeah, I can imagine.” He leans his hip against the work table, “Are you going to be okay with everyone being back?”

“I have to be.” Tony shrugs, “I won’t be around too much anyway, I plan to spend most of my time at the tower.”

“Does Peter have an apartment there or does he stay with you?”

“He has a room in the penthouse.” Tony replies, “he and his aunt live in Queens but she works long hours and doesn’t like to leave him alone while she works nights.”

“So you stepped up to the plate.” Bruce voices his unspoken thought.

“I guess.”

“And you love him.” Bruce says gently.

Tony looks up sharply, he considers brushing it off, outright denying it or just changing the subject.

“More than anything in the world.”

The words hadn’t come out of his mouth willingly and judging by the surprise on Bruce’s face the other man is just as surprised as Tony is.

“And that scares the hell out of you.” Bruce surmises.

Tony takes a deep breath and nods, “Yeah.” He takes another shuttering breath, “He scares the hell out of me but I can’t seem to get rid of him.”

Bruce chuckles, “You don’t want to get rid of him.”

Tony can’t hide his grin, “No, I don’t. He scares the hell out of me but I have no idea what I’d do without him.”

“Pepper likes him?”

“Pepper would use me as a human shield if it came down to protecting Peter.” He gives his signature grin, “We never thought about kids, our lives are too crazy but god it’s a good look on her.”

Bruce gives him a knowing look, “You guys thinking about trying?”

“Nah.” Tony waves his hand dismissively, “Things are too up in the air right now and Peter is more than enough for us to handle and we’re not even his main caregivers.”

If he’s honest with himself the idea of a baby is more appealing that it was even the year before but they’re getting older, life doesn’t appear to be slowing down too much and Peter is one thing -still scary- but a baby is absolutely terrifying.

“Speaking of caregiving or whatever I guess I’d better go make sure that the kid isn’t eating his weight in jellybeans.”

Bruce chuckles and nods, “I’ll be up in a bit.”

He gives a thumbs up over his shoulder as he leaves the lab.

Upstairs he finds Peter and Thor in the living room in the middle of what looks to be a very heated game of Mario Cart on the Wii. Vision and Rhodey are both there as well but Vision has his nose buried in a book and Rhodey is doing something on his phone, occasionally glancing up at the chaos in front of him.

****

Tony wedges himself between Peter and Rhodey on the couch as the movie starts, Bruce is stretched out on the other couch and Thor has made himself comfortable in an one armchair while Vision occupies the other. Peter starts out curled up against the arm of the couch two blankets pulled over him and a bowl of popcorn held in his arms but by the middle of the movie he’s sitting up straight again and stretching out his shoulders and neck.

About two thirds through the movie Tony notices his head starting to droop, every once in awhile the kid will allow his head to drop too far forward and he’ll jerk himself back awake. By the third time the kid does it Tony - in a move decidedly not thought through - takes pity on the kid and gently pulls him against his side. Peter slips over easily and curls against Tony’s chest with a contented sigh. He keeps an arm around Peter’s shoulder and turns his nose into the curls on the top of the kids head. He takes a deep breath -he’s not smelling the kids hair, he’s not!- before turning back to the movie. He refuses to acknowledge how nice it feels to have Peter curled into his side.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Literally have nothing to say for myself... Life got busy... Oops.

He’s on a flight back from DC, hopefully the last for awhile when he gets an alert from F.R.I.D.A.Y he glances down at his phone and grins when he sees that it’s Harley’s mid-term transcript. A transcript that he did not have to hack into the university to receive -the damn kid won’t tell him anything so _sometimes_ he has to go looking for himself - He clicks the attachment and scrolls through with a frown.

Harley’d always had good grades, good enough that he’d managed to skip two grades, and good enough to get him a partial scholarship to Vanderbilt,so his frown deepens when he sees that every mark on Harley’s mid-term transcript is in the 50’s or 60’s range, well below his usual average. He debates calling the teen but he knows it won’t get him anywhere. He looks down at the report card again and sighs as he makes a decision.

The flight to Tennessee adds to his already long day and by the time he gets there he’s exhausted and not looking forward to the half an hour long drive between the small airport and Harley’s house. According to the address on the report card the kid’s moved and apparently failed to mention that fact during any of the five times he’s talked to him in the past month.

He rents a car from a small lot down the street from the airport and starts the drive. He tries not to think about his last unplanned ‘trip’ to Tennessee as he drives. By the time he pulls up in front of a very run down apartment building in a part of town that makes him think twice about leaving the rental parked on the street he’s talked himself down from at least one panic attack.

He climbs out of the car, triple checks that its locked and makes his way over to the front door. He’s expecting some sort of buzzer system or lock or something but the door opens easily. He shudders at the security implications of that and reads the directory to find the apartment.

_H. Keener - 204_

He can’t remember Harley’s mother’s name off the top of his head but he’s almost sure it doesn’t start with an H. With a growing feeling of dread he makes his way up the stairs to the second floor. He finds apartment 204 and knocks on the door. He hears the sound of little feet and the slide of a lock before the door opens to reveal Emma Keener. Her long dirty blonde hair is falling in messy waves around her shoulder and her brown eyes look up at him with excitement.

“Tony!”

“Hey, Kiddo.” Tony greets with a smile, “Is your mom or Harley around?”

Emma bounces on her heels, “You’re lucky, it’s Harley’s first night off in forever! He’s making taco’s for supper.”

“Sounds like fun.” Tony steps into the apartment, “Is your mom at work?”

Emma looks at the floor and shrugs, “Haven’t seen her for awhile.”

And if that doesn’t raise a hundred red flags, “How long is awhile?”

“Summer.”

_Jesus Christ_. Tony’s stomach leaps into his throat as his heart drops to his knees. He takes a second to glance around the apartment, there’s barely any furniture and the furniture that is there is ratty and worn.

“Emma what have I told you about answering the-“ Harley’s words die on his lips as he rounds the corner and sees exactly who is standing by the door. “What are you doing here?”

“Hi to you too.”

“Hi.” Harley replies, “What are you doing here?”

Sometimes they’re too much alike.

“Well,” Tony crosses his arms over his chest, “I saw your latest report card, got a little bit worried.”

“So you flew to Tennessee?” Harley asks dryly, “I’m not even going to ask how you saw my report card.”

Tony shrugs, “Well I figured if I called you would just lie to me so this seemed easier.”

“Emmy, go to your room and finish your homework, okay?”

“But I want to see Tony.” Emma whines.

“We’ll visit after.” Tony promises, “Go on and get your homework out of the way.”

Emma purses her lip and doesn’t seem overly happy with the idea but she turns and disappears around the corner.

“How long did you think you’d be able to make this last for?” Tony asks as soon as he’s sure Emma is out of ear shot.

“Apparently about four months.” Harley replies sarcastically.

“Where’s your mom?”

“No idea.” Harley replies, “She bailed back in June.”

“Did you file a police report?”

“No, she was getting antsy, every once in awhile she’ll text and say she’s fine.” Harley says, “I didn’t want to risk Social Services finding out.”

Tony wants to pull out his hair.

“No, that would be too logical.”

“I didn’t want Em going into the system.” Harley hisses.

“You’re seventeen years old Harley, you can’t be takingcare of a seven year old, how are you even paying for this place?”

“I work at one of the local factories.” Harley replies, “The money is decent.”

“Nope.” Tony says abruptly, “This is done, you’re not doing this, absolutely not.”

“What do you mean?” Harley asks incredulously, “A. You’re not my father, B. You have no right to waltz in here and tell me what to do and C. Kindly fuck off.”

Tony let’s it slide because he can see the panic written across Harley’s face.

“I am not trying to be your father.” Tony says slowly, “And I know I can’t just walk in here and tell you what to do but Harley this is insane I can’t let you keep doing this, it’s illegal for one and two it’s not good for either of you.”

“You’re not sending her away.” Harley says vehemently.

“Wasn’t planning to.” Tony promises, “I’d never just ship her off and I think you know that.” He rubs his chin with a sigh and holds up his hand, “Just give me a minute to think, okay?”

His mind is racing and he can’t think clearly, he can’t find a solution to this problem that’s going to please everyone. His first thought is to just stay there for a few days, try to figure things out but with the Rogues being pardoned the next day and the upheaval that’s going to follow he knows that’s not an option.

“Okay.” He finally says, “You two come back to New York with me.”

“No.” Harley says immediately, “I can’t just do that, I have exams for the next two weeks and some of my professors gave me extra credit work, I can’t just leave.”

“Okay fine…” He pauses to think again, “I don’t particularly like this idea but I get it if you want to stay and finish your semester.” He takes a deep breath preparing for the argument that is going to come, “Why don’t I take Emma back to the city with me, I’ll keep an eye on her so you can focus on school and then once your exams are done you can fly up and we’ll try and figure something out.”

“No.”

“Harley you can’t keep going like this, it’s not good for either of you, she needs stability and safety-“ He holds up his hand when Harley opens his mouth, “I know you’re doing your best kid, I get it and I’m proud of it but you need to focus on school, be a kid and she needs an adult, you both do.”

“I’ll drop out of school.”

“Absolutely not.” Tony says firmly, “That’s not even an option, you got into university for Mechanical Engineering at seventeen you are not just giving that up.”

“It’s my life, and I probably lost my scholarship with my grades.”

“And ten years down the road you will thank me, the scholarship doesn’t matter and we both know it.” Tony replies, “Look I know it’s not ideal and I know it sucks but somethings gotta give and I’m not willing to let it be your education or your safety. It’s only for two weeks right now, she’ll be safe I promise.”

“What do you know about kids?” Harley asks.

“More than you’d think.” Tony says with a small chuckle, “Look I’m not claiming to be an expert, hell I said the word pussy to a twelve year old the first time I met him but I have Pepper and people who can help. It’s not permanent, we’ll reevaluate and make a decision while you’re on Christmas break but for right now let’s give this a try so you can finish the semester.”

Harley rubs a hand over his face, “Emma has school.”

“She’s in second grade.” Tony replies dryly, “Something tells me she won’t be missing a lot, I’ll call the school and tell her we had a family emergency or something.”

“You’re not going to give me a choice in this, are you?”

Tony purses his lips and shakes his head, “Sorry, kiddo.” He shoves his hands in his pockets, “I’m trying to be responsible here.”

“I want a say in what happens.”

Tony nods, “Okay, but right now we’re not making any decisions, we’re getting through the next two weeks and then we’ll look at options.”

Harley gives a resigned sigh and nods, “Fine.” He gives Tony a hard look, “If anything happens to her I don’t care if you are Iron Man I’ll kill you myself, capishe?”

“Capishe, I won’t let anything happen to her.” He promises then gives a small sigh, “Look, I need to be back in the city by tomorrow morning, there’s going to be an announcement about the Accords and I need to be around for it.”

“So you’re taking her tonight.”

He can hear the sadness and the fear in the teens voice and he hates that it’s his fault but despite being a genius he can’t actually see a way around this.

“Yeah.” He says, “Are you sure you’re going to be okay here? I’m sure we can work something out with the school if you want to come.”

Harley looks around the small apartment, “I’ll be fine, I need to finish this semester.”

“Do you want to move into the dorms instead of staying here?” He asks, “I can probably pull some strings with the school, scratch that I definitely can.”

“No, I don’t want to worry about moving right now, it’s only two more weeks.”

“Well in that case for the sake of my anxiety and my old man heart I want to instal another lock before I leave.” Tony says, “Do you want me to explain things to Emma or do you want to?”

“I will.” Harley replies, “I’m going to make it sound like a fun vacation, she doesn’t need to know what’s going on.”

“Okay.” Tony replies, “I’ll run and find a hardware store and get some locks, that’ll give you time to tell her and help her pack up whatever she needs.”

Harley nods dejectedly and turns to make his way down the hallway.

**** 

He’s grateful that at the very least Emma isn’t scared of flying, the seven year old is so excited to be on the privet jet that he has a hard time keeping her contained until she eventually passes out about twenty minutes outside of New York. When they land at the private airfield Tony doesn’t even try to wake her up, he just scoops her out of her seat -are people ever actually _this_ small?- and carries her down the steps to where Happy is waiting, leaning against his Audi.

“Boss.” He greets quietly.

The man isn’t his driver anymore but he’s still grateful that Happy had been willing to pick them up, he hadn’t even complained too much. He’d given the man a quick debriefing on the situation over the phone while he had been driving to the hardware store so he was at least ready for the little girl in Tony’s arms.

“Can you start grabbing the bags? I’m going to get her in the car.”

New York is cold early December and Emma is only wearing a small coat, certainly not warm enough for the bite in the air.

“No problem, Boss.” Happy replies easily, “May and the kid are at the penthouse, they’ve got the one of the guest rooms set up for you.”

Tony nods his thanks and lets out a silent sigh of relief. His first call had been to Pepper who was in Hong Kong for the week. She had sounded upset about the situation, not about keeping an eye on Emma for a few weeks, but about the fact that a woman could just up and leave her children like it was nothing. His second call had been to Happy to pick him up at the airport and his final call had been to May Parker.

He has no idea what kids like, he doesn’t even know what kids Emma’s age actually need. The only person he knew who had kids was Clint and he couldn’t exactly call him so he’d called May instead. He’d explained the situation and asked her to go to the tower and ask F.R.I.D.A.Y to order anything they might need as well as some things to make Emma feel at home. Harley had packed Pyjamas, underwear and clothes but only a small duffle bag full, even with doing laundry Tony really isn’t sure it will be enough but they could always do some shopping the next day for stuff like that.

He settles Emma in the carseat already set up in the back of the car and quietly shuts the door before climbing into the other side.

Emma is still asleep when they pull into the underground garage at the Tower, he debates letting her sleep but decides it probably isn’t a good idea to let her wake up in a completely different environment. He slides across the seat and brushes a finger over her cheek.

“Emma.” He says gently.

In that moment he is so thankful for Peter, despite the age difference between Emma and Pete the kid has started to bring out his softer side, something he has a feeling he’ll need in the coming weeks.

Emma’s eyes open blearily, “Where are we?”

“We’re at my house.” Tony replies softly, “We just have to get on the elevator, okay?”

Emma rubs her eyes and nods, he helps her unbuckle and slides out of the car. When he makes it around to the other side Emma is leaning against the car still half asleep. When Tony gets close enough Emma holds up her arms. It takes him a second to realize what she’s asking for and by the time he does she’s looking at him with a look of tired confusion and Happy is chuckling as he pulls their bags out of the trunk. He bends down and carefully lifts Emma up, she wraps her arms around his neck and buries her face in his neck.

“Are you tired?” He asks quietly.

She nods against his neck and tightens her legs around his waist.

“Alright, we’ll get you upstairs and into bed.” He promises.

He follows Happy to the elevator and refuses to meet the mans eyes as the doors close. He can see the smirk on Happy’s face in the reflection of the elevator doors and he turns a glare on him for a second.

“I’m just gonna drop the bags off for you and head out.” Happy says as they reach the penthouse.

“Yeah, that’s fine.” Tony replies distractedly, “Thanks for picking us up.”

The doors open and Tony steps out and shifts Emma as the little girl perks up a bit to look around.

“Wow, it’s so big.”

Tony chuckles and tightens his grip on her, “I’ll give you the whole tour in the morning.”

She squirms a little bit and he leans down to set her on the ground. She looks around with wide eyes and reaches out to grab Tony’s hand. He looks down at her in surprise and feels an odd sense of warmth in his chest at the easy way she trusts him. Trust he’s not sure he deserves, he’s working to be a better person but he’s not sure he’s good enough to handle taking care of the innocent child standing by his side.

“Hi!”

Tony looks up to see Peter coming down the hall, he has a friendly smile on his face but Tony can tell by his posture that he’s hesitant to come into the room. Tony waves him over and smiles at Emma.

“Emma this is Peter.”

Emma waves shyly and presses herself closer to Tony.

“He’s really cool.” Tony promises in a conspiring whisper, “I wouldn’t keep him around otherwise.” He winks at Peter to make sure the kid knows he’s kidding and Peter smirks.

“Hey, Emma who’s your favourite superhero?” Peter asks.

“Iron Man.” Emma replies perking up a little bit, “But I like Black Widow too because she’s a girl.”

“Iron Man is my favourite too.” Peter replies.

That makes Tony unreasonably happy and Emma steps away from Tony and closer to Peter.

“Who’s your favourite Disney princess?” She asks.

Tony can tell by the tone in her voice that she considers this to be a very serious question and he prays to whoever’s listening that Peter gives her an answer she likes.

“I like Mulan and Rapunzel.” Peter replies, “I like Rapunzel because she has a cool chameleon and she can use a frying pan.”

“Me too.” Emma replies seriously, “What’s your favourite movie?”

Peter strokes his chin and takes a second to consider it, “Frozen.” He finally decides, “Olaf is the best.”

Emma nods as if this pleases her greatly, “Okay. I like you.”

Peter smiles and nods, “I like you too.”

God kids are weird. He’s trying to figure out how to move the conversation along when May makes her way into the room.

“Well, Hi there!” She greets.

“Emma this is Aunt May.” Peter says, “Her favourite princess is also Mulan and her favourite character is Mushu.”

“Hi Aunt May.” Emma says, “I like Mushu, he’s funny.”

Tony opens his mouth to gently correct the little girl but May waves him off and smiles at Emma.

“He is funny isn’t he?” May takes the two bags from Happy who has been watching the entire ordeal with a small grin, “What do you think a bath before bed? I got a bunch of rubber duckies.”

Tony hadn’t even thought of giving Emma a bath but May’s probably on the right track. Emma looks up at him and he gives her a nod and a reassuring smile.

“Come on, we’ll go find some nice bubbles and let those boys keep each other busy.” May says.

She makes it sound like they’ll have way more fun and Emma skips off with her easily.

“She’s good with kids.” Tony comments with a bit of surprise.

“Yes well raising one does tend to make you good with them.” Peter replies sarcastically.

“God, I miss when you were less sassy.”

“No you don’t” Peter replies easily.

“I’m gonna head out.” Happy interjects, “I’ll just be downstairs if you need me boss, see you later, Kid.”

“Bye Happy!”

It’s ten thirtyat night and Tony is exhausted but the kid is still his usual bundle of boundless energy and he wants to find out if there’s a way to harvest some of it for himself. He nods towards the kitchen and Peter follows him as he makes a beeline for the coffee pot

He gets the machine going and turns to Peter, “Good day at school, Kiddo?”

“Yeah, I had Academic Decathlon practice after school and then patrolled for a bit until May called.” Peter replies, “I helped this little girl get her pet chinchilla out of a tree so that was cool.”

“Sounds like you did good.”

Peter shrugs, “It was okay, Emma’s a cute kid.”

“You’re good with her.” Tony comments.

“I like kids.” He settles himself on one of the bar stools, “Is she going to be okay? May said she has a brother a bit older than me.”

Tony nods, “Yeah I’ll make sure she’s okay, her brother’s name is Harley, I met him a few years ago when everything with the Mandarin happened.”

“I remember that.” Peter replies slowly, “Failed human experimentation, right?”

“Yup.” Tony pulls a mug out of the counter, “Good memory… So… Are you okay with her staying here for a bit?”

Peter cocks his head to the side and gives him a questioning look, “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“You live here part time, this’ll mean a big change, at least for a bit and I want to make sure that’s okay with you.”

“It’s fine with me.” Peter replies easily, “She’s a kid who lost her parents and needs a place to stay, it would be a bit hypocritical if I told you to leave her on the street.”

Tony chuckles and gives him a small nod of concession.

“Is her brother going to come too? Colleges go on break soon don’t they?”

“Yeah he’s going to come up when his exams are done.” Tony replies, “Is _that_ okay?”

“Of course.” Peter says, “It’s your house.”

“It’s your home too.” Tony reminds him gently, “I want you to tell me if you aren’t okay with this.”

“I’m really fine with it, honestly Mr.Stark.”

“Internship nights might have to happen here for a little bit, and they might have a bit more kids shows than actual SI stuff.”

“You say that like it’s a punishment.” Peter grins, “Really Mr.Stark I’m fine… You’re acting like you expect me to turn into a jealous monster.”

“I know you won’t.” Tony replies with a grin of his own, “But I also know you’re self-sacrificial to a fault.”

“There’s room here.” Peter says, his voice more seriously, “Maybe this means you have a bit less time for me or you have to cancel a weekend here or there I mean it’s not great but Emma needs you more right now, Harley does too.”

Tony puts down his coffee and rounds the counter so that he’s standing right in front of Peter.

“This does not mean I’ll have less time for you.” He says firmly, “It means that for right now how we spend our time might change but I will always have time for you, I’m not cancelling any weekends. Yeah they need me right now but you were here first and you’re…”

He wants to say _you’re my kid_ he wants to tell Peter how important he is to him, he wants to tell him that he is his world but he’s not sure they’re there.

“You’re important to me, Pete.” He finally says.

Peter gives him an unsure smile but he can see the pleasure in the kids eyes at the statement. Their moment is interrupted by Emma flying into the kitchen, her damp hair is pulled back into two neat braids, -Tony doesn’t know how to braid hair, is that something you need to know?- she climbs up on the stool next to Peter and pokes him in the cheek.

“Aunt May did my hair.” She states matter of factly.

“It’s very pretty.” Peter replies seriously, “You look like you’re all ready for bed.”

Emma’s eyes widen a bit and her chin quivers, Tony sees Peter look over at May in a panic that he feels deep in his soul.

“I vote we have some nice hot chocolate and watch a movie.” May says quickly.

_Thank you Jesus Christ for May Parker._ He’s not sure that hot chocolate right before bed is a smart idea but he’s willing to admit that despite his well earned title as a genius May is definitely smarter than he is in this situation.

“I can make the hot chocolate.” Tony offers.

“Absolutely not.”

He looks over at Peter who is giving him a hard look, “You can’t make hot chocolate, you use water.” The kid gives a dramatic shudder and practically throws himself off of the stool, “I’ll make hot chocolate, you get F.R.I.D.A.Y to pull up the movie.”

Tony throws up his hands in exasperation and looks around the room, “I don’t know when it became acceptable for people to boss me around in my own da- my own house.”

Despite his feigned exasperation he’s silently overjoyed that Peter is starting to feel more comfortable around him. The kid had been warming up more and more in the past two months but in the past weeks it’s felt more like family, especially with May around and Bruce and Thor back. He’d been lonely as long as he could remember, then he’d met Rhodey the cool older kid he’d roomed with in college. Rhodey’d had no reason to pay attention to the annoying kid he’d been forced to room with but he’d taken Tony under his wing and had kept him there for over thirty years. Then Pepper had come along, she was his best friend, she knew him in ways no one else did and she still loved him, she agreed to _marry him,_ he’s still not sure how that happened. The Avengers had been a part of his family, they still were in a way. The ragtag group of people who understood him in a way Pepper couldn’t, in a way even Rhodey couldn’t somedays. And then Peter had come along and turned his world upside down, Peter with his Bambi brown eyes, his sweet personality, overwhelming nerdiness and quirky sense of humour. Peter had dragged May along with him and now, despite half of his family on the other side of the world and barely speaking to him he didn’t feel lonely. He felt so loved it was overwhelming and absolutely terrifying.

“Frozen!” Emma squeals happily.

“I think we can do that.” May replies easily, “C’mon we’ll get it all set up while these two fight about hot chocolate.”

He and Peter banter while Peter ‘teaches’ him how to make hot chocolate, by the time they make it into the living room May has settled onto the couch with Emma. May is curled up against the arm of the couch with Emma next to her wiggling excitedly, Tony takes a seat next to Emma and Peter squishes into the spot between Tony and the other corner of the sectional.

“There is a whole other side of the couch.” Tony grumbles, “Is there a reason we’re all squished together?”

“Warmth.” Peter replies easily.

Tony rolls his eyes and asks F.R.I.D.A.Y to start the movie. He finds himself mildly entertained by the cartoon princess and the weird little snowman and even likes the queen who seems like the only Disney character to have any common sense at all. He understands why May suggested the movie about halfway through when Emma leans against his side heavily. He glances down and the little girl is sound asleep against his side. He wraps an arm around her and makes sure she’s settled before turning back to the movie. Twenty minutes later and he feels a weight against his other side and looks down to see Peter passed out cold against his shoulder.

“And the kids are down for the count.” Tony mutters as he settles an arm around Peter.

May leans forward so she can see Tony and the pile of kids draped over him, she smirks and looks up at the ceiling, “Can you get a picture of this F.R.I.D.A.Y?”

_“Of course Mrs. Parker.”_

The little Irish traitor. He glares up at the ceiling but doesn’t argue, he tells himself that it’s because he doesn’t want to risk waking the kids and _not_ because he kind of wants a copy of that picture.

May carefully stands up, “We may as well get them to bed, unless you really want to finish watching Frozen.”

“I think I’m good.” Tony replies.

He lifts his arm so May can shift Emma up and away from him, he stands up and carefully shift’s Peter so he’s laying down on the couch. He bends down and scoops Emma into his arms.

“I’ll get her in her room, do you guys want to spend the night or are you heading home?”

“We were going to spend the night.” May replies, “Figured you might want someone close by in case you need help.”

The relief is overwhelming and so is the gratitude.

“You don’t have to work tomorrow?”

May shrugs, “I called a friend and traded shifts with her, I figured you might want someone here to watch her during the day tomorrow, especially with Pepper gone and that press conference you have in the afternoon.”

Tony sighs, “Pepper called you.”

May makes her best innocent face, “It’s fine, but I have to work nights tomorrow night now so can you maybe take Peter for the night?”

Tony chuckles, “Sure, he was going to be here in the afternoon anyway.”

May studies him for a moment, “You know if you need to cut back on weekends or internship nights for a little while he’ll understand, I’ll understand too.”

“He already tried telling me that and I told him that that’s not happening.” Tony adjusts Emma carefully, “He’s important to me, I’m not going to just push him aside now.”

May nods and reaches down to brush a hand through Peter’s curls, “Do you want me to wake him up and get him to bed or do you want to say goodnight first?”

“Wait five minutes?”

“You got it, I’ll bring everything into the kitchen.”

Tony turns to go down the hallway but pauses and turns back to May, “Thank you, May… For everything.”

May gives a one shoulder shrug and smiles at him, “Anything for family, go put her to bed before she wakes back up.”

Tony makes his way down the hallway and stops at the guest bedroom directly next to his and Peppers room and across the hall from May’s room and opens the door. The room is generic, Pepper had said it was too much to have six bedrooms in the penthouse but he’s suddenly glad he’d insisted on it. He steps into the dimly lit room and lays Emma down on the bed, she looks tiny on the huge bed surrounded by pillows and he feels a surge of protectiveness roll over him. He leans over and makes sure she’s tucked in snuggly and runs his hand over her hair before stepping back. He takes a second to look around the room and grins at the pink nightlight plugged into the wall, the small stack of picture books on the bedside table and the handful of stuffed animals sitting on the end of the bed. May hadn’t gone all out but she’d gotten enough that he’s be able to keep Emma busy until he did some shopping.

He does one more check to make sure that Emma is still asleep before slipping out of the room. He leaves the door open a crack and tells F.R.I.D.A.Y to wake him as soon as Emma is awake.

Back in the living room he finds May sitting on the couch playing with something on her phone and Peter still asleep.

“I almost don’t want to wake him up.” Tony says softly.

May chuckles and shakes her head, “He has school in the morning and he won’t be feeling very happy if his back is all messed up.”

“Goddamn kids, so high maintenance.” He mutters sarcastically.

May snorts but doesn’t look up from her phone, “As a parent you’re allowed to think it, you’re not supposed to say it out loud.”

He glares at her but crouches down in front of Peter and gently runs his fingers through the kids curls, “Time to wake up sleepyhead.” Peter whines and buries his face in the couch cushion, “Come on, you gotta move into your room, Kid.”

“Don’t wanna move.”

“Well we all have to do things we don’t want to.” Tony reminds him with a smirk, “Like me, I’m old I don’t like crouching but here I am trying to convince a very stubborn Spider-Baby to go to bed.”

Peter lifts his face high enough to roll his eyes at Tony, “Fine.”

“Good boy.” Tony says condescendingly, “Now let’s boogie, you have to be up early for school, we’ll get Happy to give you a ride.”

“He’ll love that.” Peter deadpans.

“I’m sure he’ll be thrilled.” Tony replies, “Come on.” He urges as Peter sits up and rubs his eyes blearily, “Off to bed you go.”

Tony pushes himself up and gives a small groan when his knees pop loudly. He watches as Peter moves to give May a kiss on the cheek.

“Goodnight Mr. Stark.”

He gives the kids shoulder a squeeze as he walks by and then throws himself down on the couch as soon as Peter is out of sight.

“I’m so tired.”

May outright laughs at that and reaches over to pat his head, “Go to bed, Tony.”

“You’re not my mom.” Tony mutters petulantly.

“No, I’m way too young for that.” May agrees, “Now go take a shower and go to bed, tomorrow’s going to be a long day.”

He hates that she’s right but he pushes himself up anyway, “Fine, fine, goodnight Miss Bossypants.”

“Goodnight, Tony.” May replies patiently, “See you in the morning.”


	13. Chapter 13

When he wakes up at six thirty the next morning he knows it was F.R.I.D.A.Y’s voice that woke him up but he can’t for the life of him remember what she’d said. He pushes himself up in bed and just barely stops the swear word from escaping his mouth when he sees Emma sitting at the end of of his bed. _So that’s what FRI wanted._

“Hey, Kiddo, what’s up?”

“I woke up and didn’t know what to do.” Emma says with a shrug.

Well okay, that makes sense to him. “Well alrighty then. What do you do at home?”

“Get ready for school.”

And that has him flying out of bed, “Shit, school, Peter.”

“Shit is a bad word.” Emma reminds him.

“Yeah, it definitely is, Kiddo.” He agrees.

He’s thankful that he’d slept in actual pyjama’s the night before, otherwise he’d be in for a really awkward moment as he practically vaults out of bed. He gestures for Emma to follow him as he bolts down the hallway and into the kitchen. His panic appears to have been for nothing, Peter is sitting at the counter with a bowl of cereal in front of him his phone in his free hand. May is at the other end of the counter with a coffee in hand chatting quietly with Happy who’s drinking a coffee and leaning agains the kitchen counter.

May turns to him with a raised eyebrow, “You good?”

He takes a deep breath and shakes his head, “I’m good, I forgot Peter had to go to school this morning.”

Peter looks up at him, “I’m not five, I can get myself ready for school, I actually do it quite frequently.”

He waves his hands in exasperation and then makes a zipping motion with his fingers, “It’s too early for your sass.”

“It’s always too early for his sass.” Happy mutters under his breath.

May rolls her eyes at the other man but doesn’t comment on it. “Finish eating, baby, you need to get going soon traffic is going to be horrible.”

Happy mutters something that Tony can’t hear but May just smirks and shakes her head before taking another sip of her coffee. Tony turns to Emma who’s climbed up beside Peter and is twirling the cereal box in her hand.

“You want some cereal, Emma?” Tony asks.

“Yes please.”

He grabs a bowl out of the cupboard and hands it over to the girl who pours herselff a bowl, half of it ends up scattered on the counter but Peter is quick to scoop it up and dump it into his own bowl. Tony steps forward to help Emma pour the milk over her cereal, easier to stop the mess before it’s actually made, and then makes a beeline for the coffee pot. He’s halfway through his cup of coffee when May hands him a banana.

“Eat.”

“Not my mother, not my wife.” Tony reminds her.

“Your wife called and told me to make sure you eat.” May counters.

Tony takes a bite of the banana, “She’s technically not my wife.”

“I’ll be sure to tell her you said that.”

Tony points a finger at Peter threateningly, “Do it and I’ll ground you until you’re thirty.”

“You can’t ground me.”

Tony looks over at May who shrugs, “If he really wanted to he could.”

“Ha!”

Peter rolls his eyes at Tony’s childishness, “I’m going to get dressed for school.”

Tony watches as the kid tosses his bowl in the dishwasher. He’s been dreading this day for weeks, he’s still dreading it but it’s a bit easier with everyone around to distract him. He’s got about an hour before he needs to start getting ready and he just wants to live in this moment, with Emma munching on her cereal happily, May and Happy talking to each other quietly and Peter yelling down the hallway occasionally.

Fifteen minutes later Happy and Peter leave for school and Tony is left alone with May and Emma.

Tony claps his hands together when Emma finishes her cereal. “Alrighty Emmybear what’s on the schedule for today?”

Emma shrugs and looks between the adults.

“Well I thought,” May begins playfully, “that we could have a girls day while Tony does his work stuff.”

Tony hops on board, “And what does a girls day entail?”

“Well I thought Ms. Emma and I could go get a haircut, I need a trim and you might too.” Tony nods his approval for that, Emma really could use a haircut, “and then I thought we could go see if we can find a bit of new clothes and then maybe go to the park.”

He knows May went through Emma’s bag when she’d helped her unpack the night before so if May is suggesting shopping the girl is probably missing some things.

“Sounds like fun to me.” Tony says, “Maybe you could pick up some toys and stuff to play with, does that sound like fun Em?”

Emma nods so enthusiastically that Tony can’t help but laugh, “Alright, well you’ve got a bit of time before anything opens, do you want to watch some tv?”

Emma nods and Tony sets her up in the livingroom with the rest of Frozen before returning to the kitchen. He grabs his wallet on the way and pulls out his credit card.

He hands it over to May once he’s back in the kitchen, “Put everything on there.”

“Tony-“

“She’s my responsibility, you’re doing me a huge favour.” Tony interrupts, “Get her whatever you think she needs, buy more than she’ll need for the few weeks she’ll be here she can always take it with her. Have everything delivered back here so you don’t have to carry it, and May I’m serious if you’re getting a haircut too put it on there, I owe you big.”

May rolls her eyes at him, “You take care of my kid at least three days a week.” She reminds him, “I think we’re even.”

“We will be after this.” Tony replies, “Trust me no matter what you buy it won’t even make a dent, and plus I know you won’t buy a gold plated Porche or something.”

May laughs and shakes her head, “You’re ridiculous. Go, get ready.”

*****

The press conference after the Accords Committee announces that the Rogue Avengers are being pardoned goes as well as he could have expected. There are a lot of questions he barely has answers for but he manages to hedge for an hour before he’s finally able to head back to the tower. He’s in the back seat of the car Happy is driving when the old cellphone that he’s been carrying around for almost a year starts to ring in his pocket. He debates just ignoring it but finally motions for Happy to roll p the privacy divider before answering it.

“Stark.” His voice is curt but he’s tired and so far from in the mood to make small talk.

_“Tony.”_ Steve’s voice is like a punch to the gut and he has to close his eyes for a second to get himself together, “ _We just heard the announcement… We can come home?”_

“Yup, that’s what they said.” Tony deadpans, “It took awhile but they finally agreed, Barton and Lang are officially off house arrest too. They can move about as they please but it’s probably better if all of you keep a low profile for awhile.” He runs a s hand over his face, “The compound is open for all of you, your rooms are ready to go if you want them.”

“ _Seriously?”_

“No, Cap I’m just-“ He bites his tongue and swallows the sarcastic response, “Yes, seriously. Everything is ready to go for you guys if you want it. No Avengers business until we hammer out the last few details and get the new Accords signed though, probably about a month.”

“ _T’Challa showed us the new Accords, they look good.”_ Steve mutters something to someone on his end of the line that Tony can’t hear. “ _We’re all ready to sign when the time comes.”_

They’re pulling into the underground parking garage, “Great.” He wants to make a sarcastic comment but he keeps himself in check, “Listen I told T’Challa to let me know when you guys are ready to come back, I’ll send a Quinjet.” He clenches his fist and takes a deep breath, “Will Barnes be joining you?”

_“Is that an option?”_

It’s something he had really struggled with, countless nights debating with Rhodey and Pepper, more than a few nights drunk off his ass hating his life and finally some semblance of acceptance before he’d come to a decision.

“Yeah, I’m not going to be all buddy buddy but I’m guessing you want him there and I’m not in the mood to fight over it.”

_“He’s gotten a lot better.”_ Steve starts, _“They had him back in cryo for awhile but they’ve been making real strides with this simulation technology.”_

“B.A.R.F.” Tony says.

_“You know it?”_

“I should, I made it a couple of years ago, I upgraded it and sent it to T’Challa for Barnes.”

Steve is completely speechless on the other end of the line for a solid minute, “ _Thank you, Tony, for everything, we’ll probably come back by the end of the week. Bucky needs to be here for a bit longer so he probably won’t be back right away.”_

All of a sudden he’s very done with this conversation, “I gotta go, Cap. I’ll see you when you guys get here.”

He clicks the phone shut before Steve can say anything else.

**** 

Upstairs he finds May sitting on the floor of the penthouse with Emma who’s twirling around in a pretty pink dress. Her hair is still pretty much the same length but it looks lighter and healthier and she now has bangs straight across her forehead that make her look adorable.

“Wow!” Tony exclaims dramatically, “Two beautiful women in my apartment how did I get this lucky.”

May rolls her eyes at his theatrics but Emma looks tickled pink.

“Do you like my hair?” She asks excitedly.

“I love it.” Tony pulls out his phone, “Here smile and we’ll send a picture to Harley.”

Emma flashes him a toothy grin and he quickly takes the picture and sends it off to Harley, “Gorgeous!” He exclaims again, “Now we’ve got about an hour before Peter gets home from school, why don’t you and I go make some cookies and let May take a break.”

He’s not sure how this is going to go, he hasn’t tried making cookies yet but they can’t be that hard.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TRIGGER WARNING: Death of a minor!!!
> 
> I did a bad thing and you're all going to hate me....

Tony is fucking exhausted, no two ways about it. He’d spent the day up at the compound making tense conversation with the Rogue Avengers while getting them settled in. Thank god it had been May’s weekend off and she’d been willing to watch Emma for him. Pepper had flown in five hours earlier, she’d made it through dinner and a viewing of Mulan but had gone to bed almost as soon as they’d put Emma to bed. May had left shortly after, Peter had been spending the night at Ned’s house, and Tony had wandered down to his slightly neglected lab.

He wants a drink so badly, he’s stressed and tense and desperate for a six week vacation that he knows he’s probably never going to get. With the Rogues coming back, the final signing of the Accords coming up and Emma and Peter there’s too much going on. He’s used to running a million miles a minute but he’d always been relatively alone when doing it, now he feels like he’s being pulled in six different directions and he doesn’t know how to stop. He knows he needs to sort things out with the other Avengers and the Accords, he knows he needs to get his work done for SI because Pepper is just as exhausted as he is and is still bending over backwards to be there for all of them. He knows he needs to spend time working on the suits but he also knows that he _wants_ to bake cookies with Emma -even though they always turn out horrible- he wants to watch movies and work in the lab with Peter, he wants to spend two hours alone with Pepper just to talk. He wants to work in the lab with Bruce and spend time with Rhodey.

He runs his hand over his face and tries to clear his mind, thinking about what he wants and needs to do isn’t helping him actually get anything done. He pulls of schematics for the newest Iron Man suit and messes around with them for twenty minutes before his cell phone rings. He glares at in disdain and considers ignoring it but it’s already eleven o’clock at night, whoever it is it’s probably important.

He’s gotten exactly three phone calls in his lifetime that have made it feel like the world has stopped spinning, the first was when his parents died. The second had been when Pepper had been taken by the Mandarin and the third and most recent had been when Happy had called to tell him that Peter had been involved in a plane crash. This call makes his stomach drop and his knees give out, his vision blurs and he can barely make sense of the words on the other end of the line. He knows that he hangs up the phone at some point but he’s not sure when Pepper shows up in the lab. He doesn’t know how she ends up kneeling front of him, he knows her lips are moving and he knows she’s saying something but he can’t understand what it is.

“Tony.”

He recognizes his name through the fog and that slowly brings him out of it.

“Tony, what happened? F.R.I.D.A.Y said you got a phone call and collapsed.”

He swallows heavily, runs both hands over his face and brings his knees up to his chest, “Harley.”

The words are barely a croak and he can tell Pepper is confused by the five seconds of silence as she processes what he said.

“What about Harley?”

“There…” He takes a shuddering breath, “There was an accident… He um… He didn’t make it.”

Pepper’s hand flies to her mouth and he can see the tears welling in her eyes and he feels his own eyes welling up.

“Pep.” He whispers brokenly, “He’s… Pep, he’s gone.”

Pepper reaches out and strokes her thumb over her cheek, “I’m so sorry, Tony.”

He covers his hand with his mouth and tries to muffle the sob that breaks out, “I… He’s so young, he just started college.”

“I know.” Pepper murmurs, “I know, baby, I know.” She shuffles forward so she can wrap her arms around him, “I’ve got you.”

* * *

The next five days go by in a hellish blur. Telling Emma shatters what’s left of his soul, he’s seen Peter crying, he’d even seen Emma cry on her second night in the city but it is nothing compared to the uncontrollable sobbing and wailing that happens when he tells Emma she’ll never see her brother again. The funeral is a small service in Tennessee, just him, Emma, Pepper, May, Peter and two of Harley’s friends from school. Tony had gotten in touch with Harley and Emma’s mother but she’d merely said thank you for letting her know and then had hung up. She hadn’t asked about Emma or where her seven year old daughter even was. If Tony’s phone shattered against his wall after that phone call it was no ones business but his.

Rhodey had been running interference with the Avengers and the UN while he’d tried to muddle through the week. May Parker had been a godsend, she’d been at the tower every spare minute helping with Emma and making sure that they were functioning while Pepper attempted to hold together SI. Pepper hadn’t known Harley as well as Tony but she’d known him well enough that his death had sent her through a loop, not to mention the added stress of dealing with an emotionally traumatized seven year old.

And that was a whole other issue, he hadn’t known what to do with Emma before but with Harley gone the options had dropped even further. He had tried to find family but there was none, he knew Harley would roll over in his grave - god he hated that expression - if he handed her over to Social Services but that left him with no options.

He’s already in bed when Pepper comes in from a late conference call with their offices in Hong Kong. She stops by his side of the bed and leans over to give him a gentle kiss. He watches her gather an old t-shirt of hisbefore slipping into the bathroom. It’s the first time since Harley passed that they’re alone together, awake and neither one of them is crying.

When Pepper crawls into bed beside him he’s quick to turn off the lamp on his side of table before rolling over to throw an arm over her.

“I love you.” The words are breathed against her neck and he drops a kiss below her ear when she threads her fingers into his hair, “I love you so much.”

He feels her turn her head so that she can kiss the side of his head, “I love you too.”

He tightens his arm around her, “I know these past few months have been a lot.” He says quietly, “You’ve worked hard your whole life to get where you are and I know kids were never a part of that plan for you but you’ve let me have Peter and you’ve been there for everything and now with Emma… Just, thank you, Pep.”

“I love Peter.” Pepper says quietly, “I love who you are because of Peter, I love the man you’ve grown into.” She tightens her grip a bit so that he’s looking at her, “I didn’t want kids, I didn’t think we’d be good parents… But seeing you now, you’re an amazing father.”

“I’m not-“

“Yes you are.” Pepper interrupts gently, “You can argue that you’re not Peter’s father but you may as well be and you’re amazing at it… And you’re amazing with Emma, that little girl has been through hell this past week and you’ve been there every step of the way for her.”

“There’s no one else, Pep.” He mutters softly.

“I know.” Pepper runs her fingers through his hair gently, “There’s no one but us.”

“Yeah… About that.”

“I know, Tony.” Pepper murmurs, “I called the lawyers today, they’re seeing what our options are.”

He pushes himself up so he can look her in the eyes, “You don’t have to do this Pepper, I know this wasn’t part of your plan.”

“None of this was part of my plan, you weren’t part of my plan.” She reminds him with a small grin, “But I love you, and I love Peter and I’ve only known Emma for a week but that little girl needs a home and she needs love and we’ve got a lot of it to give around.” She reaches up and cups his cheek, “Two years ago I would’ve said no way in hell but hey we’ve already got one kid, what’s another? Plus we have a family who will be more than happy to help us out.”

“You’re okay with May being here this much?”

She raises an eyebrow at him, “Are you going to ask me more stupid questions?”

He makes a show of considering it, “Nope.” He leans down to kiss her, “You are an amazing woman Virginia Potts.”

She grins and he can see the twinkle in her eye, “I know.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah... I hate myself too but this just kind of happened, I really wanted the relationship between Peter and Morgan but obviously that couldn't happen so I did it with Emma and I really wanted to explore a grieving Tony and how that would affect his relationship with Peter. I love Harley but had an incredibly hard time writing him in this context (Trust me I tried before making this decision). I will have a post-endgame fix it with Harley in it so I will make it up to all of you Harley lovers. 
> 
> I love all of your comments.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So somehow I completely left out a chapter so please go back and read chapter 13 as I completely missed posting it but have added it in now. It is not vital however it has some good character building for the rogue avengers.

On December 16th he exiles himself to the lab early in the morning. Pepper had taken the day off, like she had every year for the past eleven years, and was keeping an eye on Emma. She had promised to give him space as long as he promised not to drink. He’s been completely sober for forty days and Pepper doesn’t keep it a secret that she’s proud of him.

He eyes the papers on one of his worktables before turning away. They’re the custody papers from his lawyers for Emma, they just need signatures from he and Pepper.

He mutters something to DUM-E and reaches for a wrench. He works on the adjustments to Caps’ shield for twenty minutes, he’s planning to give it back to the man for Christmas, before F.R.I.D.A.Y’s voice interrupts him.

“ _Boss, Mr. Parker is on his way up in the elevator, it appears he’s been injured.”_

His entire body goes cold and he has to remind himself to breath. He’s at the door to the lab when Peter steps off the elevator in his suit, mask in hand. His face is a mess of blood, his nose is black and blue, his eye is already swollen shut and he’s holding an arm across his ribs.

“Jesus Christ!” He exclaims, “Pete what the hell happened?”

“Some asshat got a little bit swingy with a crow bar.”

“Okay.” Tony tries to get a deep breath, “Uh, F.R.I, call Bruce and tell him to meed us in MedBay.”

He knows he should be doing something else but his brain feels like somebody dumped an angry hornets nest in it. Everything is just buzzing, he can’t think, he can barely breath and sanity feels like a distant concept he’s completely unfamiliar with. He has an arm wrapped around Peter’s shoulders and he knows he’s muttering assurances but other than that the entire ride down to MedBay is a blur. Bruce is waiting for them and quickly gets Peter settled on a chair. He tries his best to keep a level head as Bruce checks Peter over but he’s riding the line between okay and hyperventilating dangerously.

“Okay, Peter this is going to hurt a bit we’re going to have to reset your nose.”

Peter nods but Tony can see the tears welling in his eyes.

“It’s okay, Buddy.” He assures him quietly, “I’m right here, I’ve got you.” He promises, “Hold my hand while he does it, you’re not going to hurt me..”

Peter doesn’t even hesitate to take his hand and Tony hides his wince when the kid grips it tightly. He does wince when Bruce snaps the kids nose back into place and his barely held together heart breaks when the kid whimpers.

“It’s okay, it’s done.” Tony mutters.

“I just need to wrap your ribs.” Bruce adds, “With your healing I would estimate you’ll be all healed up by tomorrow night, but I want to see you first thing tomorrow morning, just to see how it progresses.”

Peter nods silently. Tony’s not sure when the kid stripped down to his boxers or even what happened to his ribs, he’s guessing bruised.

“Bruised ribs hurt like a bitch but I’ve synthesized a pain killer for you, I want you closely monitored just to make sure there’s no reaction.”

Normally he’d give himself a mental high-five for being right but the word reaction catches in his mind and his panic swells again.

“Reaction?” He asks, “What do you mean reaction?”

“I don’t think there’ll be any.” Bruce placates, “It’s a variation of the pain killer we use for Cap, it should be safe, I just like to cover all of my bases.”

It makes Tony feel a bit better but it’s still not enough to calm the panic that’s flying around his mind.

“Peter I’m going to give you the pain meds and have F.R.I.D.A.Y monitor you for a few minutes.” Bruce says after he’s done wrapping the kids’ ribs. “I just need to step out to talk to Tony for a minute.”

“It can wait.” Tony says.

“No.” Bruce replies firmly, “It can’t, we’ll just be a minute, you’ll be okay right, Pete?”

“I’ll be fine.” Peter promises as he accepts two pills from Bruce.

“We’ll just be right outside.” Tony promises, “I’ll be back in two minutes.”

“I’ll be fine.” Peter replies patiently, “Go ahead.”

Tony reluctantly follows Bruce out of MedBay, far enough down the hallway so that they’re our of sight and earshot of even Peter’s super-senses.

“I need you to breath.” Bruce states quietly, “Tony you _need_ to breath.” He says again.

Tony fights to get his brain under control and struggles to get a deep breath, “Oh god.” He gasps when he finally manages to get a breath.

“There you go.” Bruce mutters, “A few more okay, you having a panic attack in there isn’t going to do any good for anyone.”

“What if he’d been hurt worse?” Tony asks brokenly.

Bruce’s face softens in understanding and he squeezes Tony’s shoulder, “How’re you doing with everything?”

Tony shrugs, “We’re surviving.”

“I asked how _you_ were doing.” Bruce says gently, “You just lost a kid, Tony, you’re allowed to be not okay.”

“He wasn’t my kid.” Tony mutters.

“He was the closest thing you had to a kid until Peter came along, it was a different relationship but you still loved him.” Bruce replies, “And now you’re taking care of a little girl who has a close connection to him… Peter getting hurt this badly only a few days after has to be hard.”

Tony looks up at the ceiling and blinks rapidly, he hasn’t cried in almost two days but he’s on the edge of a complete breakdown.

“I…” His voice cuts off and he pauses to clear his throat, “I’m a fucking mess, Bruce… I just want a drink, I want Harley alive and I want my kid safe.”

Bruce steps forward and pulls Tony into a tight hug, “I know.” He mutters barely loud enough for Tony hear, “I don’t know how to help but Tony your kid is safe right now, he’s hurt but he’s safe and he needs you right now… I know it’s a bad day, and it’s been a hell of a month and it sucks but your kid needs you, both of your kids need you and you can’t be there for them if your drowning in the bottom of a bottle.”

Tony sucks in a shuddering breath and nods against Bruce’s shoulder before stepping back, “I know.” He wipes his eyes roughly, “I won’t be Howard, not now when it matters.”

Bruce purses his lips and nods, “Okay, I’m going to go back to Peter and you’re going to get a drink of water and then you’re going to come and get your kid.”

Tony nods shakily and waits until Bruce is gone to go to the staff room he’d designated for the Med team to grab a glass of water.

By the time he gets back to MedBay Bruce is doing one final check over Peter and the kid is laying there peacefully. Tony can tell by the relaxed look on his face that the pain meds have done their job, he’s wondering about the dosage because there’s still an edge of pain in Peter’s eyes but he seems comfortable enough for now.

“How’re you doing, Kiddo?”

“Okay, still a bit sore.”

“I’m going to make the pills a bit stronger next time.” Bruce comments, “I wanted to make sure we weren’t going to have an accidental overdose, you’re okay though, Pete, it’s not too bad?”

“No I’m okay.” Peter replies, “just a bit of a dull ache.”

“He can’t have anything more?” Tony asks.

“Not of the dose I prepared, one more will be way too much, he can have more in two hours, it’s strong enough that his metabolism shouldn’t eat through it too quickly.”

“Okay.” Tony sighs, “Why didn’t you call me, Peter?”

His voice isn’t accusatory and he certainly isn’t yelling, he’s too damn tired for that. He just wants to know why Peter didn’t call for him to come pick him up. He’s also making a mental note to change the protocol in the suit to alert him to _any_ major injuries, as it is he has it set to alert him to any form of puncture wounds, traumatic head injuries, broken bones or burns, none of which the kid actually has.

Peter looks down and shrugs, “Didn’t want to bug you.”

He sees Bruce glance their way out of the corner of his eye before the other man gives him a small nod and slips out of the lab to give them privacy.

“Peter when you’re hurt you need to tell me, that’s not bugging me.” Tony says firmly.

“Emma needs you here, you don’t need me bugging you.”

He reaches out and gently cups Peter’s chin and tilts his head so that the kid is looking him in the eye, “What I _need_ is you here, alive and safe.” He says gently, “I need you to call me when you’re hurt so that I can help you… You’re never bugging me, Pete.” He takes a shuddering breath and looks at the ceiling, “I would rather get a hundred little calls from you every day than one call from the police saying they found you injured or worse okay?”

Peter shakes Tony’s hand loose and looks down, “I’m sorry.”

Tony sighs, “I don’t want you to be sorry, Kid.” He reaches out and gently squeezes the kids hand, “I’m not mad, I’m…” He sighs, “Right now I am scared, I’m scared of losing you and Emma and I need to know that you’re going to call me when something happens.”

“I will.” Peter mumbles, “I just really didn’t want to bug you today… I figured you’d want to be alone.”

God dammit this kid is going to kill him one day with his stupid self-sacrificial attitude and huge Bambi eyes.

“You’re more important than that _any_ day, okay?” Tony leans forward and tilts Peter’s head up again, “My dad pushed me away all the time, he wasn’t there when I needed him and I promised myself I wouldn’t be like that… So I don’t care if I’m knee deep wallowing in self-pity or grief or whatever, you call and I’m there, but for that to work you need to _call,_ okay?”

“I’ll call.” Peter promises.

“Okay.” He squeezes Peter’s knee again, “In that case I’m going to give May a call and tell her you’re spending the night so that Bruce can keep an eye on you.”

“Do you have to tell May?” Peter whines.

Tony chuckles, “Yeah kid, I don’t want her panicking if you don’t come home and even if you do go home that,” He gestures to Peter’s face, “Isn’t easy to hide.”

Peter sighs heavily, “Fine.”

“I’ll go make that call and then we’re going upstairs.”

Peter rolls his good eye and winces slightly but doesn’t protest any further.


End file.
